Oleo Saccharum

Oleo saccharum is a sugar and citrus oil mixture that is often seen in tiki drinks, it is very easy to make it just takes a few days to be ready. There are faster ways to make oleo saccharum if you have a sous vide or a vacuum sealer, but unfortunately, I don’t have any of those fun toys so I just make mine the good ol’ fashion way.

Ingredients

Citrus fruit of choice (Orange, grapefruit, ect.)

Sugar

Large container with an airtight lid

Method

Juice your citrus fruit and set juice aside for later or drink now, it’s up to you. Now you want to scrape out most the white pith from the inside of the rind (this can make it bitter). I just used a spoon for this and once you get under the citrus segments the pith comes out pretty easily. You don’t need to remove all of it just make sure the majority of it has been scraped out. I then roughly cut my peels into strips just so they would have more surface area. Once you are left with nothing but peel place it in your airtight container with 2oz or 60ml of granulated white sugar for EACH piece of fruit. If your fruits are particularly large add an extra ounce or two. I found my oranges were quite big so for the full batch, I used 9 oranges altogether, I added 4oz of extra sugar.

Shake the sugar and zest until evenly coated, I found it easiest to add half of the orange peel into the container then add half of the sugar and repeat. This layers the sugar and the peels so you get a more even coat of sugar across the peel and it will also make it a faster process. You will want to shake your mixture 2-4 times a day for 2-3 days, I just gave mine a shake every time I walked by it. During this part of the process, I recommend keeping it out of direct sunlight because that can cause your peels to dry out and you will not get as much oil out of it. After a few hours, you will start to see the sugar pulling all the aromatic oils out of the peel.

Once a few days have passed and all the sugar is dissolved you should be left with this lovely syrup. Now all you have to do is strain the liquid out of the peels and store it in the fridge in an airtight container. If stored properly it should last for a few months in the fridge.

Oleo Saccharum is perfect for adding a citrus punch to any cocktail or even just soda water for a fizzy treat. Now that you are done with the peels you could throw them out but I believe in producing as little waste as possible, that’s why I threw all the peels in the food processor with some water and processed it into a chunky mixture. This mixture is essentially a rustic marmalade and therefore goes perfectly in the middle of a victoria sponge cake!

Sponge Cake

I used Mary Berry’s Victoria sponge cake and once it was cooled I drizzled about 1 1/2oz of ginger liqueur over both cakes and let that absorb for a few minutes. Once the liqueur was fully absorbed I spread a generous layer of the oleo saccharum mixture over one side of the cake, stacked the other cake on top, then dusted a light layer of icing sugar over the whole cake.

This cakes pairs perfectly with a hot cup of earl grey tea or the “Orange You Glad?” cocktail if you want something a little more decadent.