Drying oranges: decorate and perfume your entire house!
Orange is one of those foods that can be defined as multifunctional. Delicious when eaten alone, they can be integrated into various recipes, both sweet and savory.
Their richness in vitamin C makes them an excellent ally for increasing our immune defenses.
But today we are focusing on another characteristic: smell. Fresh and persistent, it will fill the house with an energetic and sunny aroma.
How to enjoy the aroma of orange
To enjoy the aroma of this fruit to perfume your home, you will need to dry it first.
We will then see what methods we can use. For everyone, however, you will have to start with the same operation and even earlier with the choice of fruits.
We only buy thick-skinned organic oranges. This will ensure a more persistent and healthy smell.
To dry them, you must first wash them and cut them into thin slices. Then place them on a sheet of absorbent paper for half an hour to remove some of the juice.
If you want, to avoid wasting anything, while waiting to be able to taste the dried oranges, you can place the leaf soaked in juice on a radiator.
As it dries, it will release a delicious aroma throughout your home.
Various methods of drying oranges.
After washing, cutting and drying our fruits, we must choose which method to use to dry them:
- We can use the oven at home. In this case, place the slices on a sheet of baking paper and put them in the oven at 90° for 3 hours. After half the time we turn them over.
- A quicker method is to microwave the oranges for a few minutes on medium power. We check the drying level from time to time to avoid burns.
- The most natural way possible to dry oranges is simply to aerate them. Place them on a support where the sun hits them directly. You will have to wait at least seven days then turn them over, letting them rest for another seven days, so that they dry on both sides. If we are not in a hurry, this method is for us.
- To avoid wasting a day, without our house smelling of citrus fruits, we can dry the slices directly on the radiators. Place them on a sheet of paper and place them on the radiators. In seven days they will be ready for further use.
Drying oranges: how to use the slices to perfume your home
Once we have our beautiful dried orange slices, their use depends only on our imagination.
If we are only interested in the smell, place them in cotton bags. We will place them in different parts of the house, even near radiators and stoves, so that the heat releases all the aroma.
Wanting to take advantage of the aesthetic of this home perfumer, you can use the slices to create garlands to hang on doors. Even arrangements of dried flowers, to be placed on tables and shelves, are decorative and fragrant.
A good idea is to create a centerpiece using a simple clear glass vase. We put the orange slices inside, perhaps with other winter fruits like chestnuts and walnuts.
Our house will smell like a wonderful orange grove!