orange
Also known as: Oranges
A sweet citrus fruit eaten out of hand or used for its juice and zest in cooking and baking, where it contributes both bright acidity and aromatic oil from the peel. Zest and juice bring different things -- zest is concentrated aromatic oil with little sourness, juice is sweet-tart liquid -- so a recipe calling for both is using the fruit two separate ways.
Buying guidance
Choose fruit that feels heavy for its size, a sign of more juice inside; the skin should look taut rather than dry, wrinkled, or spongy. Color is a weaker signal than weight -- some fully ripe oranges have green patches near the stem.
Substitutions
- Tangerine or mandarin -- sweeter and less acidic, good in most uses that call for orange juice or segments.
- Lemon or lime -- much more tart and far less sweet; use for acidity, not as a sweetness match.
- Bottled orange juice for fresh -- fine for cooking, missing fresh zest's aromatic oil if a recipe wants zest too.
Tips & common mistakes
An orange's pith is thicker than a lime's or lemon's and clings more stubbornly, so cutting it away with a small sharp knife gives cleaner segments than trying to remove it with a zester or peeler alone.
Storage
Oranges keep noticeably longer than more delicate citrus -- a week or more at cool room temperature, several weeks refrigerated -- so the fridge is more about extending an already decent shelf life than a strict requirement.