Preserved lemons: salt, lemons and four weeks of patience
A preserved lemon is an entirely different ingredient from a fresh one. After a month in salt the bitterness leaves the peel, the flesh dissolves, and the rind — which is the part you use — turns soft, salty and intensely citrus, without the sharp acidity of the fresh fruit. In Moroccan cooking it plays the role a pickled cucumber plays in Poland: an ingredient that brings a depth nothing fresh can. The recipe has two basic ingredients and one rule: everything must stay under the liquid.
Your own work in that: 25 min.
- Preparation 25 min
- Fermenting 43200 min
Step by step
0 / 5 doneScald the jar and scrub the lemons
Scald a litre jar and its lid with boiling water and dry them. Scrub the lemons under warm water with a brush — you are eating the peel, so it must be clean. Choose unwaxed fruit; wax keeps the salt from penetrating, and you will be eating the peel.
Ingredients: 8 pcs lemons · 120 g coarse non-iodised salt · 4 pcs lemons for juice
Cut a cross in each lemon
Trim the tip off each lemon and cut it in a cross, almost all the way through but leaving 1 cm at the base. The fruit should open like a flower while staying in one piece — otherwise it falls apart in the jar.
A cross cut, a centimetre left at the basePack with salt and press into the jar
Pack a tablespoon of salt into the centre of each lemon, pushing it between the quarters. Put the lemons into the jar one at a time, pressing hard with a wooden spoon — juice starts to run and rise. Tuck the spices between the layers.
Ingredients: 2 pcs bay leaves · 1 tsp peppercorns · 1 pcs cinnamon stick · 4 pcs cloves
TipThe pressing is obligatory. The lemons must give up their own juice, since that juice plus the salt makes the brine. Placed in gently they stay dry and mould.
A spoon of salt inside, then pressed hardTop up with juice and seal
Squeeze the remaining lemons and add the juice until it covers the fruit completely, 1 cm above the top. Leave 2 cm of headspace under the lid. Seal and shake to dissolve the salt at the bottom.
Juice a centimetre above the lemonsFerment a month, shaking every few days
Keep the jar at room temperature for 4 weeks, shaking it every 2–3 days. The peels soften gradually and the brine thickens and clouds. After a month the rind can be cut with a fingernail without resistance — then it is ready.
Ingredients: 8 pcs lemons · 120 g coarse non-iodised salt · 4 pcs lemons for juice
TipA white film on the surface is usually salt or kahm yeast — skim it off. Fuzzy, coloured mould means something stood above the brine and the whole jar must go.
Four weeks, shaken every few days
Before you start
You use the rind, not the flesh
Before using, rinse the lemon, scoop out and discard the flesh (it is very salty and pulpy) and chop the rind alone. The flesh can go sparingly into a meat marinade or a dressing — just remember it is very salty.
What to use them in
Lamb and chicken tagines, couscous, hummus, roasted vegetables and sauces for fish. A teaspoon of chopped rind transforms a dish — use it sparingly, as it is very intense.
How long they keep
An opened jar keeps a year in the fridge, and an unopened one longer still in a cool pantry — as long as the lemons stay under the brine. The rind softens further over time and the flavour deepens; many cooks consider lemons around six months old the best.
The fast version
Lemons cut into thin slices and buried in salt are ready in a week. The peel does not soften as much, but for sauces and dressings it works very well.