Fruits
Blood Orange in gelato
Blood orange is a red-fleshed sweet orange (Citrus x sinensis) whose juice and pulp carry roughly 9 g of sugar and 13 percent total solids per 100 g. In gelato it works mainly as a sorbetto/sorbet base, delivering bright acidity, natural color and a high anticongelante load.
Balancing parameters
Per 100 g of product, verified against independent food-science sources (listed below).
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
| Total Solids | 13.2% |
| Water | 86.8% |
| Sugars | 9.1% |
| Fat | 0.1% |
| MSNF | 0% |
| Protein | 0.9% |
| POD (sweetening power) | 10.2 |
| PAC (anti-freezing power) | 13.3 |
Typical use: 25-40% as juice/pulp in a sorbetto; 8-20% in a cream gelato base
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Open the balancerHow to use it in gelato
Use the juice and fine pulp as the fruit fraction of a sorbetto, or fold into a cream base for blood-orange gelato. Its sugar spectrum is glucose+fructose rich, so PAC (~13 per 100 g of fruit) runs well above its POD (~10): the mix softens and stays scoopable but is less sweet than the freezing depression implies, so balance added sucrose upward. The natural acidity (pH ~3.5) brightens flavor and its anthocyanins tint the mix without colorant. Do not overheat, to preserve aroma and color.
Origin & background
Blood oranges arose as pigmented mutations of the common sweet orange, cultivated in Sicily and southern Italy since at least the 18th century; the anthocyanin pigments that redden the flesh develop only under cold night temperatures. Sicily's "Arancia Rossa di Sicilia" (Moro, Tarocco, Sanguinello) has held EU PGI/IGP protected status since 1996.
Frequently asked questions
Sources
- USDA FoodData Central, "Oranges, raw, all commercial varieties" (FDC ID 169097): water 86.75 g, protein 0.94 g, fat 0.12 g, total sugars 9.35 g per 100 g. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/food-details/169097/nutrients
- Kelebek & Selli / Florida State Horticultural Society, "Sugar Composition Analysis of Commercial Citrus Juice": orange glucose 2.1, fructose 2.4, sucrose 4.4 g/100 mL (~1:1:2 profile). https://journals.flvc.org/fshs/article/download/106057/101709
- RecipAl / MyFoodDiary blood orange nutrition (support): ~9 g sugar, ~0.9 g protein, ~0.1 g fat per 100 g, confirming blood orange matches the common-orange profile. https://www.recipal.com/ingredients/7590-nutrition-facts-calories-protein-carbs-fat-blood-orange
- Goff & Hartel, Ice Cream (7th ed.) — PAC/POD relative-sweetness coefficients used to derive freezing-point depression from the fruit sugar spectrum (glucose/fructose ~1.9, sucrose 1.0).