Orange Flower Water

Appears in

Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America

Published 2004

About

Orange flower water, also called orange blossom water, is a flavoring distilled from the flowers of sour orange trees, such as Seville and bergamot, usually as a condensed-steam by-product of distilling the oil, known as neroli. It is made primarily in Lebanon and France.

In the nineteenth century orange flower water flavored many English desserts. It migrated in cake and custard recipes and in capillaire, a sugar syrup. Either orange flower water or rose water was a key ingredient in orgeat, originally a beverage and later a syrup used to sweeten other beverages. (In 1828 the cookbook writer Mary Randolph deemed orgeat a “necessary refreshment at all parties.”) Orange flower water also piques a boiled orange pudding found in How to Keep a Husband, or Culinary Tactics (1872), a cookbook from California.

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