Shelf · Knife & prep · No heat
Supreming citrus
Cutting the peel and every scrap of white pith off a citrus fruit, then freeing each segment from the membranes on either side of it.
Why it works
The membrane is the part that is chewy and the pith is the part that is bitter, and both stay exactly as they were no matter what you do to the dish afterwards. Taking them out is the difference between citrus that reads as fruit and citrus that reads as peel.
The tell
A segment comes away whole and glistening, with no white on it anywhere, and the leftover membrane skeleton holds together when you lift it.
How it fails
Cutting the top and bottom off too shyly. Take enough that you can see the flesh in a full circle on both ends — that flat base is what lets you follow the curve down with the knife instead of guessing at it.
In the app, the card opens on the recipe step that names it, with the tell drawn.
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