How to make preserved lemons

What changes during the month

Salt draws the juice out of the lemon and creates a brine strong enough to preserve it. Over weeks that brine works into the peel, softening the pith and breaking down the bitterness that makes raw lemon peel unpleasant to eat.

The flavour changes more than the texture. The sharp, bright citrus of a fresh lemon becomes something deeper, rounder and more floral, closer to a savoury seasoning than to a fruit. It reads as salt and citrus and something else that is hard to name.

This is why a preserved lemon is not a substitute for a fresh one and vice versa. They do genuinely different jobs.

The method

Ten minutes of work and a month of waiting. Salt quantities and keeping are food-safety matters — the Food Standards Agency is the authority.

1. Use unwaxed lemons, or scrub waxed ones thoroughly in warm water. Small thin-skinned lemons work best.
2. Cut each lemon almost into quarters from the top, leaving the base intact so it opens like a flower but holds together.
3. Pack salt generously into the cuts.
4. Push them into a clean jar, pressing hard so the juice is squeezed out and rises. Add more salt between the layers.
5. Add extra lemon juice if needed so that everything is submerged. Nothing should sit above the liquid.
6. Add spices if you like — a cinnamon stick, bay leaves, coriander seed, peppercorns — though the plain version is the most useful.
7. Seal and leave at room temperature for three to four weeks, turning the jar every few days. Refrigerate once the peel is soft.

Using them

The peel is what you want. Opinions differ about the rest.

• Rinse the piece you are using to remove excess salt, then scrape out and discard the flesh and pith if you prefer — many cooks do, some keep it.
• Chop the peel finely and stir it into a tagine, a stew or a braise near the end.
• With chicken and olives, which is the classic Moroccan pairing.
• In a dressing or a salsa verde, where it does the job of both lemon and salt.
• With fish, particularly oily fish, roasted or grilled.
• Through couscous, rice or a grain salad, with herbs.
• In a marinade for lamb, with cumin and garlic.
• In butter, mashed with soft butter and parsley and used on almost anything.

Notes

Which lemons

Unwaxed, small, thin-skinned. Meyer lemons are excellent if you find them.

Salt

Plain salt without anticaking agents. Quantities are a food-safety matter — take them from a reliable recipe.

Time

Three to four weeks minimum. They keep improving for months.

White film

A harmless film sometimes forms on the surface and is usually rinsed off with the lemon. Fuzzy coloured mould means discarding the jar.

Salted limes

Made the same way and used similarly, particularly in Indian cooking.

Common questions