Orange Peel Simple Syrup

I created this syrup last week being inspired by the power of orange peels. I had a bad experience with back pain that felt like sciatica and I talked about in my forum thread https://raymendeat.com/forums/topic/sciatica-back-pain/ . Anyways at about the first day going on my third week of the issue I had a bowl of my orange peel coffee ice cream and my pain went away and it never came back either! I usually eat a lot of orange peels in mu homemade marmalade and all over the place, but I hadn’t had them for quite awhile lately. I was so scared for that back and leg pain to come back so I made this batch of simple syrup with the peels and have been using it in lots of places from sweetening my coffee in the morning to sweetening my tea and homemade orange Gatorade, making a homemade fresh ginger soda with it and adding it to an glass of iced milk. My pain has never returned. Ray Peat had said that orange peels are great for inflammation and I am a believer!

To make this syrup I boiled two cups of filtered water with two cups of sugar together with the zest of three oranges. I could have afforded more peels and will add them in my next batch.

I only cooked this until it just came to a rolling boil.

I turned off the heat right away and it settled into this nice golden color. I cooled it then refrigerated it. It is so easy to make and handy to have on hand for so many things that I am going to have this available to me at all times. Now I don’t have to have sugar at the bottom of my cold drinks anymore and the orange peel adds so much flavor and health benefits. I have a lot of lemons ripening on my tree and I will be using many of them to make a different version of this syrup.

Today I used a half cup of this syrup to cook three cups of fresh pitted cherries in. I added in a tablespoon of vanilla and it is wonderful. I will use these cherries in my homemade apple sauce or with brie.

The liquid from the cherries I will add to a homemade soda or try it in a glass of milk!