Morning Orange Juice Pitcher, Squeezed by Hand

By Sprig Originals ✓ · cooked up in Sprig

A pitcher of real orange juice built the way a good juice counter does it: warm the fruit so it gives up every drop, blend two kinds of orange for balance, steep a couple of peel strips in the finished juice for aroma, then chill it hard and fast. A pinch of salt and a squeeze of lemon make store-bought carton juice taste flat forever after. No juicer, no sugar syrup, no blender.

Ingredients

• 8 Valencia or navel oranges (about 3 lb), plus 1 extra in case yield runs short
• 2 blood oranges or Cara Cara oranges
• 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice, preferably Meyer
• 1 pinch fine sea salt (about 1/16 teaspoon)

• 1 to 2 teaspoons honey or agave, only if the oranges are tart
• 1/8 teaspoon orange blossom water
• chilled sparkling water, for making it an orangeade
• mint sprigs, for serving

Instructions

1. Take the oranges out of the refrigerator 30 minutes before juicing and let them come to room temperature, about 68–70°F. Cold fruit holds onto its juice; room-temperature fruit gives up noticeably more. Press and roll each orange firmly under your palm on the counter for about 10 seconds to break up the segment walls.
2. With a vegetable peeler, shave 2 wide strips of zest from one Valencia orange, taking only the colored layer and none of the white pith. Set the strips aside — they are your aromatics, not garnish.
3. Cut all the oranges in half across the equator (not through the stem end) so the juice channels are cut open. Juice them with a citrus reamer, a hand press, or your hands over a fine strainer set in a bowl, twisting and pressing rather than crushing the peel. You want about 3 cups (24 oz) of juice total; squeeze the spare orange if you are short. Stop pressing once the halves go pale and papery — grinding the peel into the bowl drags in bitter oils.
4. Set a medium-mesh sieve over a 1-quart pitcher and pour the juice through, scraping the sieve with a spoon. Spoon 2 tablespoons of the caught pulp back into the pitcher and discard the rest, or leave more in if you like it pulpy. Do not press the seeds or membranes through — that is where bitterness lives.
5. Stir in the lemon juice and the pinch of salt. The salt does not make it salty; it lifts the sweetness and rounds out any sharp edge. Taste. Only if the juice tastes thin or sour should you stir in honey, 1 teaspoon at a time, until it just tastes like ripe fruit.
6. Drop the 2 zest strips into the pitcher and let them steep at room temperature for exactly 10 minutes, then fish them out. Any longer and the peel turns the juice faintly bitter. Stir in the orange blossom water now, if using.
7. Chill fast: refrigerate the covered pitcher 45 minutes, or set it in a bowl of ice water and stir for 8–10 minutes, until the juice reads 38–40°F. Fresh juice loses its bright top notes as it sits warm, so speed matters more than patience here.
8. Stir well right before serving — the pulp settles into a layer at the bottom within minutes. Pour into chilled glasses. For an orangeade, fill glasses two-thirds with juice and top with cold sparkling water; add a mint sprig and serve immediately.

Chef's tips

Nutrition (per serving, estimated)

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