If orange segments have turned up in a recipe or caught your eye at the store, here's what you need to use them with confidence and how to choose them, cook them, store them, what to substitute, and 13 recipes to try them in.

What are orange segments?

Orange segments are the individual wedges of an orange, freed from the membranes that divide them. In most recipes the term means canned mandarin orange segments: small, seedless, already peeled and packed in light syrup or juice, ready to drain and use.

The same name also covers fresh segments you cut yourself from any orange.

Canned and fresh are not interchangeable in every dish. Canned mandarins are soft and uniformly sweet, with the syrup adding sugar the fresh fruit does not have. Fresh segments are firmer and more acidic, and they taste of the specific orange you started with.

How to Use Orange Segments

For canned, the only prep is draining. Tip the can into a sieve and let it sit a minute, because trapped syrup will thin a dressing or weep into a cake batter. Save that syrup; it sweetens a vinaigrette or glaze.

Canned mandarins are at their best where you want soft, jewel-bright fruit. They suspend cleanly in a Triple-Gelatin Fruit Salad, ring the top of an Orange Upside-Down Cheesecake, and dot a Cranberry Orange Holiday Wreath.

Fold them in at the end so they keep their shape.

Fresh segments hold up to heat and acid far better. They bring real bite to a Grilled Swordfish with Citrus Salsa and balance the savory sauce in a Spicy Orange Beef Stir Fry. Use them anywhere you want the fruit to taste tart, not candied.

To cut fresh segments, slice off both ends, stand the orange up, and pare the peel and white pith away following the curve. Then cut along each membrane to release a clean wedge. These pith-free wedges are called supremes.

Pairing and Common Mistakes

Orange segments pair with the flavors that flatter citrus: dark chocolate, cranberry, ginger, fennel, and toasted almonds. They cut through fatty proteins like duck and oily fish, which is why fresh segments work so well in a citrus salsa or a stir fry.

The biggest mistake is not draining canned segments. Leftover syrup waters down a salad dressing and can keep gelatin from setting firm.

The second is overhandling. Both forms are fragile, so stir them in last and toss gently, or you end up with mush and stray threads of membrane.

The third is treating the two forms as equal. Swap soft canned mandarins into a dish built on fresh tartness and it turns flat and sugary; the reverse leaves a delicate dessert looking ragged.

Substitutes

For canned mandarins, fresh clementine or satsuma segments are the closest match, since both peel easily and break into tidy, sweet sections. Toss them with a spoonful of sugar or syrup if the recipe counted on the canned sweetness.

For fresh orange segments, grapefruit supremes give the same juicy, pith-free wedge with more tartness, while tangerine or blood orange sections work where you want sweeter or more dramatic color.

Drained canned mandarins stand in only for cold, soft applications, never where the dish needs firm acidic fruit.

In a cooked sauce, a splash of orange juice plus a little zest covers the flavor when whole segments are not the point.

Buying and Storage

Canned mandarin segments keep for a year or more unopened in the pantry. Choose cans packed in juice or light syrup over heavy syrup if you want less added sugar.

Once opened, move leftovers and their liquid to a covered container and use within three to four days.

For fresh, buy oranges that feel heavy for their size with firm, smooth skin; that weight means juicy fruit. Whole oranges last up to two weeks in the refrigerator.

Cut fresh segments are best used the day you cut them. Store them in their own juice in a sealed container, and drain just before serving so they do not sit in liquid and soften.

Quick facts

In Chinese

橘子瓣

British (UK) term

Orange segments

en français

les segments d'orange

en español

gajos de naranja

Recipes using orange segments

There are 13 recipes that contain this ingredient.

All 13 recipes