Cooking: How to Supreme Citrus

Some recipes call for citrus fruit such as oranges or grapefruits to be "supremed". To "supreme" means to remove the skin and pith from the fruit and then cut between the membranes of the fruit to create skinless fruit segments.

In the following example we're going to supreme a grapefruit:

1. Using a serrated vegetable knife, remove the skin from the top and bottom of the grapefruit. This will create a stable platform for the next step, removing the skin from the sides of the grapefruit.







2. Sit the grapefruit on it's bottom and run you knife in downward arcing strokes to remove the skin from the sides making sure to remove the white pith. Be sure to take only small sections of skin off at a time, otherwise you will remove too much of the flesh.








Pith is the white pulp-like layer between the skin and the flesh of a citrus fruit. When using peeled citrus in a recipe, you want to remove as much pith as possible, as it has a bitter taste that detracts from the flavor of the fruit.








3. Cut the grapefruit into segments by holding the grapefruit in one hand and the vegetable knife in the other, carefully make cuts towards the center of the grapefruit either side of the membranes.

This technique can be used on all citrus fruit.