How To Pickle Lemons

How to Pickle Lemons

People have been preserving lemons for centuries by adding salt and allowing the acid from the lemon
combined with the salt to pickle them. Here is an excerpt of the information I quoted on that subject
from my redaction on Chickpea Puree with Cinnamon and Ginger for the June 2012 meeting:

March 30, 1995|CHARLES PERRY | TIMES STAFF WRITER

...But there's another kind of lemon flavor without that sharp, clean pungency--a mellow sort of
lemoniness, plush, perfumed and exotic, with perhaps a decadent suggestion of the boudoir about it. In English it goes by names like salted or pickled lemons. The Moroccans use a more poetic expression: lim mraqqed , "lemons that have been put to sleep."
People have been pickling lemons for hundreds of years. In the 13th-Century Arabic cookbook "The
Link to the Beloved," we find this recipe:
"Take lemons and slice them crosswise and fill them with crushed salt. Then press them into a bowl
and let them sit for two nights so that they soften. Then press everything strongly into a glass jar.
Squeeze lemon juice and pour it over them to cover, and seal it with olive oil. Their flavor will keep
well." (To us, the interesting thing about pickled lemons is the new flavor that develops, but in the
Middle Ages people basically cared about the fact that the lemons didn't spoil.)
The phrase "slice them crosswise and fill them with crushed salt" refers to the technique, still used
today, of cutting the lemons nearly into four pieces and sprinkling the exposed interior with salt. Paula Wolfert, author of "Couscous and Other Good Food From Morocco," reports that Moroccan pickling companies have also invented a way of salting lemons that does not involve slicing the fruit open. "These days," she says, "all the pickled lemons you see in a Moroccan market are whole."

I have called around in the local area and have found nowhere that sells pickled lemons so it is
important to know how to make them. Although it is possible to substitute lemon juice and salt the
flavor is not the same. To make pickled lemons you take whole lemons and wash them. If you use
organic lemons you can skip this next step but if you are like me and can't afford to buy organic you
give them each a dip in boiling water for about 30 seconds, this melts off the wax coating. (This will
leave a layer of yellow wax on your pan so use something that can take some scrubbing to clean it.)
After they have cooled for a minute or two slice them into quarters and squish them in a glass jar with a tight fitting lid that is not affected by acids like vinegar. (I use a jar I saved from pickles we bought.)
After each lemon add 2 tsp to 1 TBSP of salt. Fill the jar and put the lid on and put it in a cool dark
place for 3 days. After the 3 days check the jar to see if the juice from the lemons have covered the
lemons, if not top it off with lemon juice. Put the lid back on and put it back in the cool dark place for 4 weeks, at that point they are ready to use. I have read of some freezing the lemons for a few days to
soften them and speed up the process. Lady Ellie puts them in canning jars and cans them. I don't have the equipment to can so I just wait the 4 weeks. The reason that the flavor changes is that time is that the salt not only pulls juice from the lemon pulp but also pulls out some of the flavoring from the peel. You don't need to cover the lemons with olive oil, but if you choose to it will harden in the cold and seal the top of the jar, you can just keep in in the refrigerator once you open it.

*6/2014 I have found Pickled Lemons being sold at:

Thana's Little World Market

(208) 331-3033

4101 W Overland Rd, Boise, ID

But if you have the time to let them cure or you can can them the recipe is very easy.