Preserved lemons

There has been quite a lot of interest in the matter of my preserved lemons, and this afternoon I decided I needed a soothing study break activity, so I made a fresh batch and have chronicled the process for you. It's really very, very simple and foolproof; the hardest part is waiting for the lemons to finish preserving.

First I took a two-pound bag of organic lemons and washed and dried the contents. (You need lemon juice later on, too; I cheat and use bottled juice, though the recipes I've seen tell me not to. If you want to be particularly pure, you'll need to buy more lemons for juicing.)

This was enough fruit to fill three pint jars, which were meanwhile being sterilized by a trip through the dishwasher. Since you'll be eating the peel, it's best to get organic fruit if you can. You should of course wash them in any case, but you should be careful to wash and even scrub them quite thoroughly if they are conventional, and especially if they may have any wax on there.

Next, I quartered the lemons and tossed them with about a quarter-cup of salt. More salt is added later -- this is not a recipe to embark on if you're short on salt. There's definitely no need for any fancy salt here. Kosher salt, Morton's salt, any of that is fine. Your fancy flakey sea-salt should be saved for some other occasion.

Put a tablespoon of salt at the bottom of each jar and pack in a layer of lemon quarters, pushing them down. Sprinkle generously with salt and add another layer. Salt these again, and so on. Plenty of salt is the order of the day. I used about 1/3 cup additional salt in this step, on top of the original 1/4 cup.

Fill the jars to within 1/2" of the brim with juice, and close tightly. (I actually wound up putting a little more juice in these jars after I took the picture. Fill 'em up.) Don't process these as you would jam -- all that heat would change the texture of the lemons. Just close them and line them up on your counter. They need to sit at room temperature for at least three weeks, during which time you will give them a good shake once a day. Eventually they'll be limp and slightly translucent. The juice turns thick and syrupy, though not sweet, from the lemon oils. The pulp will be soft and jelly-like, and the rind will be ready for chopping and eating. The pith comes away from the peel very easily at this stage, and it's the only part you don't want to eat.

The mixture is far too acidic to have any risk of botulism. I'm told that even after you've opened the jar again following the fermentation process you don't have to refrigerate it, though if you have lemon bits sticking up out of the juice they can discolor. A sort of white lacy substance does sometimes appear in the liquid; this is just a precipitate of oils, salt, and stuff from the pith. Shake the jar and it will go away. I do keep mine in the fridge once they're done, because why not, and after all, it isn't really properly canned. Besides, counter space is limited. But you can do as you like.

Next: But what do I do with these lemons once I have them?

Comments

[Wendy]

Thanks for posting this! I can't wait to see what you do with them.

[athena]

thank you! :-)

[bbum]

This may prove to be very, very useful. The lemon trees in my backyard have an incredible number of blossoms. Never seen trees bloom like this before. If this continues, I'm going to be up to my armpits in lemon and preservation will be key!

BTW: Can you turn on or add an RSS feed to your site? That would be a wonderful addition to an already excellent site!

[bbum]

Never mind. Found it. Now the site is perfect!

http://stuttercut.org/hungry/index.rdf

[redfox]

You're very kind. I suspect my excerpt text could be handled better. Since I never use an RSS reader myself, I have no idea whether it's better to have a little snippet or a whole entry going in there. Any requests for improving my feed are welcome.

[none]

I got to try Indian lemon pickle for the first time a few weeks ago. And now there is this recipe. Big hints, yes.

[teep]

Since nobody else has mentioned it, I admire your use of light in these photographs. Generally, the food pictures on Hungry Tiger are yummy-looking. These are a cut above. They're very artistic instructional pictures. (The instructions are also clear and informative and stuff, but the first thing I noticed was the use of light in these still-life-with-lemons images.)

In particular, I adore the one with the salt (3rd from the top). Lovely.

[bhikku]

Preserved lemons are great, and good in stews and tagines, even salads and sandwiches sometimes.
But I have a problem - I tend to get green mould on the surface of the juice. Does this mean too little salt?

[ann]

wonderful recipe for preserving lemons--would appreciate the recipes for using them

[redfox]

Look up a post -- that should get you started.

[Carol]

I use preserved lemons on top of roasted chicken.
The gravy is flavored with the lemon and has a unique taste. I also use it when I saute' asparagus or green beans with onion, garlic and peppercons. No need to add salt because it is in the lemons. Remember to saute in olive or canola oil.
Preserved lemons are so good that I make up batches for anyone who likes them.

[Susie]

My uncle sent me a jar of these preserved lemons and I was fascinated. He also sent me a recipe for Morroccan chicken which we tried. My only comment about it, was that the chicken tasted too salty for my taste, and I hadn't added any salt to the recipe. I rinsed them well in cold water, too. Any help or suggestions? Thank you in advance!
susie

[Joanie]

How nice to be told in patient words how to go about a recipe! And with the pics too! I have just bought a whole pocket of lemons for a song, and will definitely try this recipe for preserving some of them. Like Susie in the letter before me, I also wonder about all the salt: surely one should rinse the preserved lemons before use? And not use any extra salt in any dish with them?

[redfox]

Susie and Joanie:

Thanks for your questions. Yes, there is quite a lot of salt invoved, though a bit less than you'd think, because usually you scrape away and discard both the pulp and the pith, leaving you with quite a thin piece of lemon rind, and you don't end up using terribly much, proportionally, in a dish.

In terms of saltiness, unrinsed preserved lemon is about on a par with brined olives, which may help you think about where they work well. And you can certainly rinse them in situations where you're nervous about how the proportions will work out.

Of course the potential excessiveness of the salt will depend on the proportion of preserved lemons to whatever else you're making, as well as what you're combining them with. Some other foods are intrinsically quite salty: meat and tomatoes, for example. Others are definitively not, such as potatoes or beans. I usually don't bother rinsing off my lemon (though I do when I'm using it with tomatoes and foods like that), but it does usually work out to make the final dish need very little, if any, additional salt.

Chicken is in fact quite salty all by itself, and if you're sensitive to salt, it might add up to something just too salty for you -- on the other hand, keep in mind that intensely flavored things (very sour, very spicy, very salty) may be designed to be paired with something bulky and bland, such as potatoes or couscous. Maybe that was what was going on with the Moroccan chicken (or maybe it was a bad recipe).

[Penny]

Any good ideas for using preserved lemons? And what is the peanut sauce recipe?

[redfox]

Ideas for using preserved lemons here; peanut sauce recipe here.

[jlt]

I hope you don't mind that I've linked to your wonderful recipe from The Middle Eats.

[Jeanette]

Search for Tagine recipies. Meat, rice and herbs in a Tagine in the oven needs these lemons.

[Rachel Hynd]

Re: Preserving Lemons: Can you preserve the lemon rinds in the way you have described after squeezing the juice out of them?
Thanks!

[Rachel]

Oh, another question: Can the preserves just sit in the jars until you are ready to use them, unrefrigerated, or, do you have to dismantle them after they are done preserving?

[Your mother]

I cheat and use bottled juice too. What kind do you use?

[Dan]

Wow! Thank you. I don't know how to cook, but I have a lemon tree outside my apartment and I've been looking for something to do with all those lemons. All the other recipes I found were very confusing, so thank you ever-so-much for including pictures. This will be an adventure. Wish me luck!

[Dan]

Holy crap, and you work with Mark Turner? I'm a cogsci geek, working with George Lakoff. Well, what a small internet. [bookmarks you]

[redfox]

Time for me to get a little bit caught up here.

Rachel: Yes, as long as there's room in the jar, you should certainly be able to stuff a few spare rinds in there and they will preserve just fine.

Mum: I used a giant bottle of RealLemon that I bought at the bodega, to my lasting shame. Really, that stuff is nasty, though the preserved lemons that resulted are not. Fortunately, the original lemons give up quite a bit of juice on their own, so it was only a matter of topping up. Still, though. Next time I think I may try to hunt out some kind of preservative-free organic somethingsomething. Maybe there is a frozen option.

Dan: Good luck to you, though you should hardly need it. Are they Meyer lemons? You can also mail them off in crates to your envious friends and relations. I love the small internet. It seems exceedingly likely that we either have met or will meet at a conference.

[John I. Carney]

I'm probably too long after the original post for you to see this comment, unless MT automatically notifies you of comments. Still, here goes:

You talk about finding a frozen lemon juice option. If you haven't thought to look for it yet, it does exist -- it's made by Minute Maid and you can find it right next to the frozen concentrated juices at any supermarket. The plastic bottle is packaged in a box. You've just never noticed it before because you were never looking for it before! It's free of the RealLemon chemicals and tastes much, much better. I use it for iced tea all the time.

I actually used it to top off a jar of preserved lemons a week or two ago. (I was thinking about them today and started looking for recipes after the fact, which is how I stumbled across your site.)