I accidently posted this question to the MIS??? board by accident. Sorry, really,I mean it.
My question is this, how do they make those little mandarin orange segments, I realize that getting the peal off the fruit is no great magic. But how do they get that outer membrane off of each of the individual segments? I have tried to remove this membrane from all kinds of oranges and tangerines and grapefruits, without success. I’m beginning to believe that it’s some horrid chemical process. It’s hard to believe a machine could do it, they are of such varying sizes, and so delicate once the membrane is removed. Someone must have an answer to this troubling question. I love these little things but refuse to eat another till I get some answers.
I’ve bought fresh unpeeled mandarin oranges in a store. They’re bred so that when you take off the peel (which is very loosely attached) there is no membrane on the fruit.
Look, I don’t mean to belabour this thing but you are missing the point entirely. I am not enquiring about the outer peal and pith. I too have purchased these at the store and, indeed the skin and pith come away from the fruit quite easily. But if you look at the tinned orange segments you will discover that the membrane that envelopes each segment has been carefully removed, this is the process I need to know more about. Not the peal and the pith, but the actualy membrane that makes each segment an indiviual. Perhaps I am not making myself very clear, perhaps I lack the proper language. Surely someone out there knows what I am talking about. It’s making me crazy --HELP!
We grok your question, relax your elbows.
What Mike is trying to say is the “membrane”
that makes each segment an “individual” is wholly intact, canned fruit or not. The fruit has been hybridized so as to minimize the connection between the pith (or whatever it’s called, that white stringy stuff that adheres so tenaciously to conventional naval (please, no bellybutton jokes) orange segments) and the segment membrane so that it comes away with the actual rind when the fruit is peeled.
Look closely at the transparent covering on your wee orangey things. Et viola! Now, don’t tell us you won’t eat membranes…
Thanks for your response but I think you need to actually get yourself a tin of these oranges to fully comprehend what I am inquiring about. It’s not that I think you’re wrong so much as I think you are misunderstanding me. I have peeled and eaten many different brands of oranges all over the world and have never seen even one where the peel comes away with the segment seperating membrane. I just want to know, I guess, that you are sure about this. Have you ever eaten the tinned oranges I am asking about. Go to your larder and check out what I claim, and you’ll see once opening the tin that there is absolutely no trace of the membrane that normally completely envelope orange segments. Really, it’s not that I don’t believe you, I just want to know you’ve actually looked at the food product I am talking about, and then reached the same conclusion. You are, after all the Highest authority I have
…thanks
Well, I’m not sure about that “Highest authority” thing, (especially with that capital letter) but a trip to the grocery store just now (you owe me 89 cents) ellucidated for me your confusion.
I think you’re envisioning a membrane that should encapsulate the whole segment itself, and such is not the case with this variety of orange.
Just look at the picture on the can. See those lighter colored lines and the glistening bumps? Now look at a segment. See how each juice/pulp “unit” (for lack of a better word) is self-contained, yet joined to the whole segment itself? That’s the membrane doing that.
Now hold one in your mouth (sheesh, shaddap, you deves) and suck all the juice off of it.
Relatively dry, huh? (SHADDAP, I said!)
Now bite into it. Feel that squish as the juice and pulp is liberated? Yeah, that’s it. That’s why those puppies don’t just ejaculate on you when you hoist them daintily via fingers from can to mouth.
Damn, I’ve written a porno screenplay!
I hope yer happy.
I think everybody but elbows and I is misunderstanding the question. 
Here’s my take on it (WAG at an answer follows).
The juice of citrus fruits comes in a three-layer package: the little bubbles that Nickrz seems to be describing (packed together to form a segment), the membrane-wrapped wedges, and the skin (including the pith that Mike King and Nickrz mention). The membrane that wraps each segment is, I think, what elbows is looking for.
But where did it go? It may have been bred out, as the loosened skin was bred in, but the canned segments look way too clean for that. I think it’s most likely a combination of blanching to loosen the membrane, and either a water spray or a soft scrubber to remove the fragments.
Bob the Random Expert
“If we don’t have the answer, we’ll make one up.”
Elbows + rjk: 1) Yes, I know exactly what you’re talking about. 2) No, they don’t seem to get it. 3) No, I don’t have any idea how they (company) do it, although the bleaching theory could have some merit, IMVHO.
Crap. Now I have to find fresh Mandarins.
Could somebody mail me one?
Meant blanching, of course! 
Nick: Don’t think you’ll find what you (and we) are looking for in a fresh one…but I realize I’m confusing the issue even more 
The plot thickens, as they say
Citrus have: An oputer peel and pith, an inner membrane covering the juice vessicles (the small bits loaded with juice), which also provides a nice dry section of fruit when you peel it by hand. What elbows is asking is, how do they romove the membrane covering the vesicles.
It is probably handled by machine. Unless that is, they have a work force of millions of people to do the cutting. Factory machines have been invented that are amazingly delicate with things, even at high speeds. Unfortunately elbows, you might not get a correct answer to your question here :). Oh BTW, no need to get snippy at everyone for not understanding what you are saying ;).
BTW: I tried to do a search on ask.com and one of the pages i tried says that most of the Mandarin Oranges on the market aren’t really the Tangerines you find in winter, but Japanese Satsuma Oranges, because Satsumas are nearly seedless (they still are a type of Mandarin Orange though :)).
Argggh! oputer = outer…anyway
“Argggh!” for me too, Doobieous, “vesicles” was the very word that I knew was there somewhere.
Even if “bubbles” works OK too.
Thanks.
Bob the Random Expert
“If we don’t have the answer, we’ll make one up.”
God Bless You !-- to everyone who finally understood the question.
Rjk-thank you for understanding, I know the others aren’t getting it but I don’t know what else to say to make it more clear.
Omniscientnot-Aaargh ! A fresh mandarin will in no way further this debate, you should look at the tinned variety to see what all the fuss is about.
Doobieous- Sorry, wasn’t intending to be snippy, just growing frustrated. Feeling much better now though, as long as one person understands…
If you still don’t get it, find a tin of these beauties and take a look inside. If you still believe this is a fruit that was simply bred to lack the all important membrane in question speak up, but I don’t think you’ll feel that way once you’ve looked into the tin.
I’m beginning to think it is all accomplished by magic.
I think it might be a process which is purposely being kept secret from us, I am envisioning a giant conspiracy now.
As you may have guessed, this question has been bothering me for WAY too long.
In fact, I seem to recall more than one long afternoon (from my misspent youth) on a Thai beach, consuming these tasty little oranges and trying desperately to duplicate this feat. I’ll have you know, I ate more oranges than I care to mention and never once successfully peeled the membrane from an individual segment. And I was using my teeth!
Look, I know I need help, you can’t imagine how many people I have asked about this. All of them, over educated and highly intelligent, and not an answer between them.
But I have faith in Cecil and the teaming millions.
You’re asking us to explain the absence (in the canned fruit) of a membrane that by your argument exists only in the fresh fruit, but then tell us NOT to look at a fresh fruit to independantly verify your own personal observations? That’s not only bad science, it smells fishy to me.
I wonder why you keep harping on the fact we “don’t get” your question when in fact we do, and some of us are falling all over ourselves trying to answer it, then deflect our access to one crucial fact in question here - what is the nature of this pre-peel membrane and does it really exist? Sheesh.
(Fixed quote tags - Nick)
[Note: This message has been edited by Nickrz]
So sorry didn’t mean to create bad science. Did not intend to offend in anyway, quite honestly, just wanted to be sure you knew what I was asking as there appeared to be some confusion.
Please accept my humble apology, I was sincerely only asking. OOOOps
This is getting WAAAAAAAY out of hand.
First: elbows - I was telling Nickrz not to look at a fresh mandarin because he would then definitely see the membranes and wonder what the big fuss was all about (i.e. not getting the point).
Second: Nickrz - “You’re asking us to explain the absence (in the canned fruit) of a membrane that by your argument exists only in the fresh fruit, but then tell us NOT to look at a fresh fruit to independantly verify your own personal observations?”
The fact that membranes exist “in the original form” of the mandarin was never in doubt (hopefully…) ; as with oranges, grapefruits, etc., there needs to be something to “hold the contents together” before the fruit is opened. However, the act of looking at a freshly opened mandarin, with its membranes, could not logically bring you to conclude that the same membranes could have magically disappeared (by whatever exact process remains to be determined) once the mandarins have been canned. Thus, the cautionary warning regarding fresh mandarin vs. canned madarin vs. possible elucidation of the vanishing membranes mystery.
Clearer now?
Elbows, I understand what you’re talking about also. I went to rec.food.preserving and read a bit about canning fruit. It’s important to cook the fruit to remove any air that may be trapped in the fruit. This seems to lend credance to the idea that the segments are blanched as part of the processing. I will purchase some of these jewels on my next visit to the grocery store to see for myself. If I so inclided I might also buy some tangerines and blanch them myself. I definitely agree that there are some pretty amazing machines out there. To wit, there’s a machine that beheads, deveins, shells, and grades shrimp. I’ve done those steps manually, and it’s a drag!
Yesterday I also found a link (via www.ask.com)) that talked about the different varieties of tangerines. The link is down right now, but I’ll post it’s url when it’s back. I recall that it said that Satsuma orange segment separated pretty easily, but I don’t remember a description of the membrane.
I bow to the teaming millions coming to my aid. It is so reassuring to know that I do not quest alone to solve this mystery. A thousand times I thank you !
If someone can elucidate the mystery, surely it must be…Mr Thin Skin!! LOL
Quick, lad! To the rescue!!