Preserving Lemons

[zzSleepyJohn]

We have a glut of lemons on our tree in the garden just now, but in another 3 or 4 months there won't be any, and lemons in the market will be expensive.

Does anyone know how we could preserve either our lemons or just their juice?

[Tantoo]

We used to freeze them whole. Or squeeze the juice into ice cube trays and then put in a plastic bag when frozen.

[Virin]

There is an old Thai style to keep freshness of lemon for 1-2 months by burying lemons in damp sand. Use a wooden bucket or opened container that has hole for draining water, make sure you don’t flood the sand, sprinkle a little water few times a week so it won’t dry up.

It works well with kaffir lime too.

Good luck .

[zzSleepyJohn]

There is an old Thai style to keep freshness of lemon for 1-2 months by burying lemons in damp sand. Use a wooden bucket or opened container that has hole for draining water, make sure you don't flood the sand, sprinkle a little water few times a week so it won't dry up.

It works well with kaffir lime too.

Good luck .

Thanks for that! Certainly worth a try, anyway.

So I've now found an old stone plantpot with a hole in the bottom, put a few crocs in there, taken 10 good big hard yellow lemons from the tree, and filled the pot with the lemons and enough sand so the lemons aren't touching.

Let's see what happens! Anyone interested, contact me again in February.

+ SJ

[flyer]

Common Maroccan recipe.

Wash fresh untreated lemons and wipe them dry.

Take a clean stone or glass jar. Sterilize it with boiling water, turn it over and let all the water drip out.

Remove the two points (ends) of the lemons

Cut the lemons in 4.

Dispose the lemon parts, one layer at a time in the jar. Sprinkle each layer with ample salt.

Make sure the lemon parts are as tight as possible against each other.

when adding each layer of lemon parts, press strongly to compact the mass, then sprinkle with ample salt and continue until the jar is full.

When the jar is full , you should have pressed the contents hard enough to have the lemon parts coverd with juice. If this is not the case then squeeze the juice of additional fresh lemons and add in the jar until lemon parts are fully covered.

Close the jar and put aside in dark place for at least one month (light on the lemons will discolor the peel). IN the first days, take care to shake the jar a few times each day to spread the salt equally around. No refrigeration required.

Preserved lemons will keep until the next crop!

For use, take the required quantity of lemon parts of of the jar and rince them with fresh water ( to remove the excess of salt). They are ready for use in any recipe, including sweet ones like lemon cake or lemon curd pie! If used in cooking (chicken, couscous, lamb stew...), remember the lemons do still contain salt and don't add extra salt in your preparation

have a sweet meal !

[NamKAheng]

We have a glut of lemons on our tree in the garden just now, but in another 3 or 4 months there won't be any, and lemons in the market will be expensive.

Does anyone know how we could preserve either our lemons or just their juice?

You can do Italian limoncello:

Authentic Italian Limoncello

1 liter of Everclear alcohol (95 % pure grain alcohol)

10 medium to large lemons

1 1/2 liters of water (6 1/3 cups)

3 lbs of sugar (6 1/2 cups)

Wash the lemons with a vegetable brush and hot water to remove any reside of pesticides or wax; pat the lemons dry. Using a potato peeler, take all the lemon rinds off of the lemons so there is no white pith on the peel. Place the rind-peelings in a large container with the Everclar alcohol. Cover the container and let it sit for seven days.

On the eight day, strain the the peels from alcohol; discard peels.

In a large saucepan, make a simple syrup by combining the water and sugar; let it simmer "fast" for 15 minutes. Let simple syrup cool to room temperature. Add to alcohol.

You are now finished and can drink it right away, put in the freezer a few hours when you want to serve

NOTE: This same recipe works for arancello also. Use 10 large oranges.

Makes about 2 1/2 liters.

After that you still have the lemons so squeeze the juice out of them, put the juice in a bottle and leave only a small empty space at the top, add a tea spoon of 95% alcohol but before you add the alcohol light it and when it burn pour in the bottle and cap it. Air degrade the lemon juice so the burning alcohol will burn the oxygen so you can keep the juice for a very long time.

[billp]

Lemon Marmalade?

Ingredients

10 large lemons

4 cups water

4 cups sugar

Instructions

Using vegetable peeler, remove yellow part of peel in strips from lemons. Cut strips into 1-by 1/8-inch strips. With knife, cut off all white membrane, or pith, from peeled lemons.

Cut peeled lemons crosswise into 1/4- inch-thick slices. In heavy nonaluminum 5-quart kettle or Dutch oven, combine lemon peel, sliced fruit, and water. Cover and refrigerate 3 to 4 hours.

Heat lemon mixture to boiling over high heat, stirring frequently.

Reduce heat to low; cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, until lemon mixture is very soft, about 1 hour.

Add sugar to lemon mixture and increase heat to medium-high; stir until sugar dissolves. Heat to boiling and reduce heat just so mixture boils gently. Boil uncovered, stirring frequently, until candy thermometer registers 220 degrees F., 45 to 60 minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare three 1-pint canning jars with their lids and bands for processing following manufacturer's directions.

Spoon marmalade into hot jars, leaving 1/4-inch space at top ofjars.

Wipe jar rims clean. Seal with lids and bands. Process jars in boiling-water bath 15 minutes. Cool jars on wire rack. Label jars; store in cool, dry place.

For gifts, if desired, decorate each jar with a fabric circle tied on with ribbon. After opening jar, store marmalade in the refrigerator.

Yield: 3 pints

From here.

[just_Elaine]

We have a glut of lemons on our tree in the garden just now, but in another 3 or 4 months there won't be any, and lemons in the market will be expensive.

Does anyone know how we could preserve either our lemons or just their juice?

On a food channel, the host sliced up lemons and froze them like that. Supposedly, when you then want a drink with lemon, you just throw a slice into a glass. I haven't tried this.

[oldoldgit!!]

When living in Cyprus I would half fill a bottle with sugar then fill with pure lemon juce and shake a few timed daily, you can dilute and make nice lemon squash.

[tutsiwarrior]

ye godda think about what you want the lemons for...most of the time it's just the juice, so squeeze it and freeze it as others have suggested. Nothing quite so nice as a freshly squeezed one...but in our back yard in California we had a lemon tree with loads of fruit all at one time (also had 2 grapefruit and an orange tree but I won't go into it). With citrus it's mostly the juice that we're after and there are wonderful refridgerating devices around...squeeze and freeze the mothers...

(the wife gets 10 kilos of oranges and tutsi says to the nieces...'I'll give you 20 baht if you squeeze dem oranges'...they sigh and look bored and wait fer me to make a better offer... )

[tutsiwarrior]

also...you got to remember that once the fruit is taken off the vine oxidation starts and you can't preserve the flavor of the juice...pick it and squeeze it quickly then freeze it...it ain't like wine that improves with age...

wine making is all about controlled oxidation...

Edited January 19, 2008 by tutsiwarrior

[Aardvark]

There is an old Thai style to keep freshness of lemon for 1-2 months by burying lemons in damp sand. Use a wooden bucket or opened container that has hole for draining water, make sure you don't flood the sand, sprinkle a little water few times a week so it won't dry up.

It works well with kaffir lime too.

Good luck .

Thanks for that! Certainly worth a try, anyway.

So I've now found an old stone plantpot with a hole in the bottom, put a few crocs in there, taken 10 good big hard yellow lemons from the tree, and filled the pot with the lemons and enough sand so the lemons aren't touching.

Let's see what happens! Anyone interested, contact me again in February.

+ SJ

So how did the Lemons work out, can you still eat them ??

[zzSleepyJohn]

There is an old Thai style to keep freshness of lemon for 1-2 months by burying lemons in damp sand. Use a wooden bucket or opened container that has hole for draining water, make sure you don't flood the sand, sprinkle a little water few times a week so it won't dry up.

It works well with kaffir lime too.

Good luck .

Thanks for that! Certainly worth a try, anyway.

So I've now found an old stone plantpot with a hole in the bottom, put a few crocs in there, taken 10 good big hard yellow lemons from the tree, and filled the pot with the lemons and enough sand so the lemons aren't touching.

Let's see what happens! Anyone interested, contact me again in February.

+ SJ

So how did the Lemons work out, can you still eat them ??

Yes, this simple technique actually worked really well, and I can definitely recommend it. I left the December lemons in the sand longer than I'd originally intended, 3 months in fact, because there didn't seem to be much point taking the preserved ones while there still were some fresh ones on the tree. They do, by the way, keep remarkably well on the tree. Anyway, just a few days ago, I dug down into the pot of sand wondering whether I was going to find brown dried-up remnants, or some guey mould, but no, out came nice yellow lemons virtually the same as they'd gone in 3 months ago. We sliced them and served them up to squeeze on to pancakes, and really nobody could have guessed their age! Good as new, they were!

There was just one problem, though. I originally buried 10 lemons, but when I came to dig them out, there were only two! What happened to the other eight, I've no idea! Oh well, better just put that down to Amazing Thailand

+ SJ