Pop quiz! How well do you know your citrus?
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Caitlin Saniga here again, trying to squeeze in a bit more fun before queen bee Lindsey Nair returns!
I’ve had citrus on the brain lately. Other fruits seem hard to come by this time of year, but many grocery stores in the area are well stocked with oranges, lemons, limes and the like. I added an odd citrus variety — the ugli fruit — to my cart during a recent shopping trip but chickened out before I reached the checkout. And just a couple of weeks ago I dug my claws into the thick pith of a gigantic pomelo and enjoyed my first-ever taste of the sweet-tart fruit.
There are so many varieties I didn’t even know existed until recently. Maybe you can relate. After all, the juicy, Vitamin C-rich fruits aren’t exactly native to Southwest Virginia.
So my curiosity got the best of me, and with the help of Google, I found answers to my questions, including: Is kumquat a citrus fruit? Where are limes grown? What’s the biggest citrus fruit of all?
Do you know the answers? Test your citrus savvy with the nine-question quiz at the bottom of this post!
What’s your favorite citrus fruit, and how do you use it in your kitchen?
February 12, 2013 - 6:00 AM
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The quiz is fun and interesting…. but glitchy. You’ve inspired me to do more with citrus!
SPOILER ALERT
Haha! I missed four and got an F! I figured Florida and California produced the most lemons, that lemons had the most Vitamin C and I didn’t know what a bergamot was. But I picked 25% for question 3, so at least I was only off by 5%.
I’ll have to look for a bergamot now. Thanks for the fun quiz, Caitlin.
I only got 2 right *sad trombone*. Had no idea I knew so little! Just give me a clementine and I’ll be ok.
Well if we are supposed to share, I got a D. Never saw that hand thing before either. Cute quiz, I agree.
I got a 56%, but if I’d read Lindseys entire post I’d have done better as I made the exact same mistake!
I think bergamot is what’s in Earl Grey Tea…oil of bergamot. I have no idea what a bergamot looks like.
Here’s an interesting article about Bergamots by David Lebovitz. Apparently it’s kind of like a sour orange: http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2011/03/what-is-a-bergamot/
Ok, I am completely wrong. It’s the bergamot herb in Earl Grey, not the citrus.
I missed two and scored 78 out of 100. The citrus fruit that I use most often is the orange. I use it in cooking for putting inside a chicken or turkey instead of using a lemon, I make sauces and vinaigrettes with the juice, I use it in marinades, I use the juice and the zest in rice pudding (along with orange extract and dried cranberries) and the most important one is that I add orange slices to flavor drinking water. I love the smell of oranges and try to find cleaning supplies with a natural orange scent. My favorite room deodorizer is Pure Citrus, which smells exactly like a freshly peeled orange. I also love candied orange peels that have been dipped into dark chocolate. Oh, and just peeling and eating an orange is at the top of the list!
Kristen, you knew more than I did about the word “bergamot.” Haha.
Vickie, you are a lady after my dad’s heart. He LOVES anything orange-flavored, scented, etc.
D…thought I would have done better than that!
Vickie, what wonderful ideas for cooking with oranges! I, too, like to use oranges instead of lemons in some recipes. I’ve always felt that oranges have a more floral aroma than lemons, but maybe that’s just me.
That said, I’ve always had a soft spot for lemons. They’re just so darn versatile! And not only are they wonderful for cooking, but the cleaning uses are just about endless as well. My favorite trick is sprinkling some coarse salt on the flesh of a lemon half and using it to scrub down the stainless steel kitchen sink. When I’m done, I toss it in the garbage disposal and it makes the whole kitchen smell amazing.
It’s been fun guest blogging, you guys! Thanks for having me, Lindsey! Happy cooking to you all.
Oh well, a 56%. I will protest that I misread one question and that caused me to miss it. The question about lime production – I thought it read differently. I knew the correct answer, but misinterpreted. Regardless, a fun quiz! The very last question, I have never seen anything like that before! If I named it, it would be something like ‘Star Trek fruit’. Something that needs to be zapped with a laser ray!
On the use of citrus in cleaning, last summer I switched over all of my cleaning products to ‘natural ingredients’. Not the ones by Clorox, though they work well. Instead, I use vinegar, citrus juice/oils, baking soda, sea salt & vanilla oil. The oils are for fragrance, and the others are the active cleaners.
The Buddha’s hand fruit inspired this whole quiz! I saw one at Fresh Market, and my mind was blown. It definitely looks like something out of this world, crooked road.
I love the taste of fresh lemons squeezed between my paws. Yum. Yum.