Buntan-zuke

the Kōchi confection that treats candied peel as a sweet in its own right: pomelo rind cut thick, simmered through many waters, glazed in syrup, and finished in a heavy coat of sugar

Origin: Japan

From the journey of Pomelo.

The pomelo reached Japan from China by the eighteenth century and settled in the warm south, where it is buntan, and in its largest Kumamoto form banpeiyu, the biggest citrus grown in the country. Kōchi on Shikoku is the historic buntan district and the home of this confection. Buntan-zuke is candied peel, but the phrase undersells it. Japanese confectionery treats fruit peel as a serious material rather than as a decoration for cakes, and the pieces here are cut thick, a centimetre or more, so that the finished sweet has a soft yielding centre beneath a firm sugared exterior. It is closer to a pâte de fruit or a fruit jelly than to the shreds of mixed peel sold for baking, and it is eaten on its own with green tea, where its faint retained bitterness plays against the tea's astringency. The method is the same de-bittering technique that recurs at every point on this fruit's journey, differing only in what it is aiming at. What distinguishes the Japanese version is the deliberate retention of a little bitterness: where a Chinese candied peel is usually taken to complete blandness before sugaring, buntan-zuke stops one blanching short. The result is a sweet that keeps a citrus edge underneath, which is very much the Japanese preference in confectionery, where unrelieved sweetness is considered a fault.

Ingredients

Peel

  • 2 whole pomelo (buntan), the rind and pith only, unwaxed

Syrup

  • 400 g granulated sugar, for the syrup
  • 300 ml water
  • 1 tbsp lemon juice

To finish

  • 120 g caster sugar, for coating

Method

  1. Wash the fruit well. Score the rind into quarters, pull it away in sheets, and cut it into strips about 2 cm wide, keeping rind and pith together to a thickness of about 1 cm.
  2. Cover the strips with cold water, bring to the boil, simmer 15 minutes, then drain and rinse. Repeat twice more.
  3. Soak the strips in cold water for an hour, then drain and press them gently between clean cloths.
  4. Bring the sugar, water, and lemon juice to a simmer, add the peel, and cook very gently for 45 minutes, keeping the syrup barely trembling.
  5. Take off the heat and leave the peel in the syrup overnight.
  6. Return to a gentle simmer for 30 to 45 minutes until the syrup is thick and the strips are translucent throughout with no opaque core.
  7. Lift the strips onto a wire rack and dry for 8 to 24 hours until tacky but no longer wet.
  8. Roll each piece generously in caster sugar and leave to set for an hour before storing in an airtight tin.

Notes

Unwaxed fruit is essential, since wax survives blanching and gives a dull, faintly greasy finish. Keeps six weeks in an airtight tin. Serve with green tea, where the retained bitterness is the point. The same method with a fourth blanching gives a sweeter, blander Chinese-style candied peel; with grapefruit it gives a thinner and more aggressively bitter sweet that is also good. The leftover syrup is intensely flavoured and excellent in soda water or over ice cream. Kōchi and Kumamoto also sell the peel half-dipped in dark chocolate, a modern treatment and a very successful one.

The Gastrographer

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