L.A. Times Test Kitchen tips: Segmenting citrus

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I remember the first time I tried to peel the the white membrane off of individual orange slices. I think I was trying to make a salad, and what should have been an easy recipe seemed to take forever. I spent most of an hour painstakingly peeling the membrane off of each slice using a pairing knife and my fingers. It was tragic.

I can chuckle now. Little did I know then that learning to segment, or supreme, an orange isn’t hard at all, and shouldn’t take the day. It should only take a few minutes.

I was just demonstrating the technique to interns earlier this week, and thought I’d share some photos of how it’s done. Click the link below to follow the steps.

If you have any kitchen tips or questions you’d like me to explore, leave a comment below or shoot me an e-mail at noelle.carter@latimes.com.

-- Noelle Carter
Twitter/noellecarter

1. Whole citrus (mandarin), above. Place the citrus on a clean, flat surface.

2. Using a sharp knife, slice the top and bottom off the citrus.

3. Following the curve of the citrus, slice through the skin on the sides of the citrus to remove it.

4. Check the citrus to make sure all of the outer skin is removed.

5. Carefully begin to slice into a slice of the citrus, running the blade just inside of the membrane.

6. Run the blade along the other side of the slice just inside the membrane to segment (or supreme) the slice, removing it from the body of the fruit.

7. Repeat with all of the slices. Be careful, as the citrus can be very slippery. If the citrus is very juicy, segment it over a bowl to catch the excess juice.

8. A whole mandarin, left, and a segmented mandarin, right.