Seville Orange

Find - Seville oranges can be a bit of a hit-or-miss item.  Very few large grocery stores tend to carry them because people either don’t know what to do with them, or mistake them for sweet oranges.  That being said, they are still grown in respectable numbers in major citrus-growing regions (including California and Florida, USA, and Seville, Spain).

Try calling around to local grocers to see if they plan to carry bitter oranges.  They may even be willing to order a case or two for you (trust us, you can find uses for a case).  You may also have some luck (in season of course) by checking out small grocers catering to populations that like to use these distinctive fruits.  Mexican grocers might be your best bet in North America.

Alternately, you can look into ordering Seville oranges directly from a grower; you’ll have to order pretty large quantities, but you can bet that you’ll be getting a great product.

Choose - Look for bright oranges with a highly fragrant peel (the peel generally smells more like a grapefruit than a sweet orange). Seville oranges have a somewhat loose, easily peeled skin, which may make them feel somewhat soft. This is normal. The fruit beneath the skin should still feel fairly firm.

Ripe fruit should be quite juicy, but it’s not uncommon for voids to appear in the segments around the numerous seeds.

Store - Seville oranges are pretty easy to keep around the house. They can be stored at room temperature (e.g. in a fruit bowl) for at least a week assuming that they are not already over-ripe, but (as with any citrus) keep watch for any powdery mould growth on the skins. If you want to keep them a little longer (or stop them from ripening further), they can be kept in the refrigerator for at least two weeks.

Because they are often not waxed (in order to make it easier to use the peel to make marmalade, etc.), Seville oranges may not keep as long as waxed sweet oranges.

Seville oranges freeze very well if kept whole, and the juice can be frozen as well.

Seville/Bitter oranges are distinct from and should not be confused with:

- Sweet orange (Citrus × sinensis)
- Trifoliate orange (aka. Chinese bitter orange - Poncirus trifoliata)
- Mandarin orange (Citrus reticulata) or its hybrids

Other kinds of citrus can stand in for Seville orange, and while the results may be pleasant, they will not capture the same aromatic/bitter/sour character.

Sweet oranges or other citrus can be substituted in many dishes calling for Seville oranges, but care must be taken to accommodate for the added sweetness. For example, marmalades can be made from any number of citrus fruits. That being said, the intense but 'dry' (i.e. non-sweet) orange flavour coupled with the bitter/sour character of the fruit is difficult to replicate closely.

To approximate something like a sour orange juice for use in sweet/baking dishes, try a mixture of orange and lemon juice (start with 1:1 and adjust to taste).  It's not an exact flavour match by any means, but it does a nice job of tempering the sweetness of normal orange juice.

If you need to replace the juice for a Mexican/Cuban recipe, a 1:1:1 mixture of grapefruit, sweet orange, and lime juice makes a very good approximation.

The peel and zest can't really be replicated, but sweet orange is probably going to be closest overall. Other citrus peels can provide similar flavour profiles in dishes.

There are several varieties/cultivars of the Seville/bitter/sour orange that are worth mentioning on their own:

BERGAMOT - Bergamot oranges are a powerfully fragrant bitter orange variety, primarily used for the production of bergamot essential oil. From a culinary standpoint, they are important primarily for their use in Earl Grey tea. Bergamot oranges are not commonly used in cooking, however a small number of them can be used to replace other citrus fruits in the preparation of preserves (e.g. marmalade). Caution should be exercised as the flavour is extremely strong and can easily overpower other foods.

CHINOTTO - Also referred to as myrtle-leafed orange, ("Citrus myrtifolia" ) this variety is grown primarily for the essential oil they produce, which is used in a variety of Italian soft drinks and liqueurs.

FLORIDA/CUBAN SOUR ORANGE - These oranges are effectively 'escapes' from cultivation, brought by the Spanish to the New Worlds.  Standard Seville oranges can be used in their place, but they are worth mentioning as they often appear under this name in the local cooking of Florida and the Caribbean.  The sour oranges of the Yucatan peninsula are very similar (perhaps identical).

DAIDAI - Daidai are Japanese bitter oranges.  They are highly bitter and tend to be used for traditional medicinal purposes rather than culinary ones, though they do make appearances in some recipes, and can often be used in dishes that call for sour/fragrant citrus juice (i.e. where one would normally use yuzu, sudachi, etc.).  The flowers are used to flavour some teas.