These preserved lemons are rich in lactic-acid producing bacteria, and they’re delicious – imparting a light, clean flavor to foods and sauces. They make an excellent condiment. After the fermentation process is complete, both the flesh and rind of the lemon become edible. I use a vegetable fermenter to prepare and ferment these preserved lemons. The fermenter is a large glass jar with a convenient air lock and is ideal for fermenting vegetables and fruits naturally. You can find them online (see sources).
To make a 1-gallon quantity of Moroccan Preserved Lemons, you’ll need the following:
- 10 lbs Organic Meyer Lemons
- Celtic Sea Salt or Real Salt
Instructions:
- Rinse and scrub the lemons well so as to remove any potential residue adhering to the lemon rind.
- Slice the lemon as though you are going to quarter it, but leave all quarters connected on one end.
- Sprinkle a little bit of salt on the interior of the lemon, and place it in your jar.
- When you’ve made a layer of lemons, sprinkle a teaspoon or two of salt over the top of the layer.
- Use a wooden spoon and pound down the lemons until they release their juice.
- Continue cutting, salting, layering, salting and pounding down the lemons until your jar is full.
- Add another layer of salt and pound the lemons until the juice of the lemons covers the fruit.
- Cover your jar loosely to allow air to escape.
- Leave the jar on the counter for 1 to 2 weeks to allow for fermentation.
- Serve and enjoy!
Oh, you are taunting me with these beautiful lemons! I am just dying to make some, but there are NO meyer lemons to be found in this town! The horror, the horror.
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These look good, I have been reading your blog for a while, and it is really interesting. However I was wondering if this would work with Limes too?
Rosy! It’s always nice to hear from a reader. I’ve never tried it with limes, or heard of anyone else trying it with limes; nevertheless, there’s absolutely no reason why this technique wouldn’t work with limes. Frankly, I think preserved limes sound fantastic. If you try it out, let me know!
I love the idea of preserving limes! I just bought a bunch of meyer lemons & did this with them a few weeks back and bought limes at the same time to juice & freeze but that is a great idea! I love your blog.
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Jenny, how do you use these? Do you substitute them for fresh lemons called for in recipes? I’m just wondering what you do with so many!
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Would this work for lemon juice in recipes? And I echo the previous poster. I need to know what to do with a gallon of lemons … but lemon juice I know I can use!
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Mostly you use these as a condiment – served with roast chicken along with spiced olives. Or chopped up fine and used on top of fish and poultry. Remember, because they’ve been fermented they last FOREVER much like sauerkraut or cucumber pickles so there’s no urgency in using them. Regarding the lemon juice, it makes a really tasty addition to a good bloody mary. Keep in mind that the juice is salty, so it’s not suited to sweet dishes.
I was so excited to see this recipe. I remember my mom bringing home a jar from some Egyptian friends of hers when I was a kid. I would eat them on there own – loved them! A couple of questions: after they are done fermenting do you place in frig? If so do they not last as long once in frig? Do they have to be Meyer lemons? And if so why?
Hi Dawna –
I put them in the fridge to slow down the fermentation process once they’re done to my liking. You could, ostensibly, keep them in a cool dark place in your home with no adverse effects. In the fridge, they keep FOREVER or close to it. I have about 1.5 gallons in there right now that I did in December and they show no signs of spoilage or mold. They should probably last at least a year. Take care though because, as with sour beets, the juice will thicken with age and you always want the fruit to be below the brine so, periodically, you’ll want to mix sea salt and water together to add to the lemons. Also try this recipe: Preserved Lemon & Parsley Tapenade. It’s a GREAT way to use preserved lemon.
You never said if you can use regular organic lemons. Do they have to be Meyer lemons?
What if you were over generous with the salt. I am 3 days in and got plenty of juice with my lemons, but a whole lot of salt settled at the bottom the jar. Is it complete disaster…ie should I start over?
just keep shaking them!
Mmmmm. These lemons look amazing and I can’t wait to make them! Thanks for the recipe!
If you cannot use up 10lbs of lemons just use a smaller jar.
I just opened my lemons after they had been fermenting about a week. Are they supposed to be fizzy?
They smell wonderful….will be trying them later today!
These sound wonderful!
I love preserved lemons and because we don’t get lemons or Meyer lemons in India, I’ve done a jar with just limes, and another with limes and tangerines both from Ottolenghi: The Cookbook. Their recipe has rosemary sprigs and red chillies added, and a dash of olive oil too. The results are delicious!
i recently tried this with meyer lemons and the flavor just burst in your mouth.
I’ve done this many times and love it. I like to lay slices of lemon on top of a beef roast just a while before it’s done roasting. Adds a fine flavor.
I have to say, though, as much as I like this site I cannot use the sources. I’ve tried to get my computer security to let me open the sources, but in order to do that I have to turn off my entire security program. Not gonna happen, that’s WHY I have security in the first place.
You and Kelly the Kitchen Kop both need to figure out a way to make your resources more accessible. Those are the only two places I ever have any trouble at all. Just post the links instead of setting up hyperlinks, for heavens sakes!
D, try a different browser. I cannot access the sources in Firefox. I can in IE or Chrome.
i do a similar recipe from one of madhur jaffrey’s old cookbooks… it’s just limes rubbed with a salt-clove-fresh-ginger-cinnamon mixture and stuck in a jar for months. by the end, they were like candy, with an edible rind like you said.
http://friedsig.wordpress.com/2010/10/12/lime-juice-lacto-fermentation/
Hello!
Today I will be making these preserved lemons. I lucked out at the market with finding gorgeous organic Meyer lemons!
My question is about washing them; my water has a little bit of chlorine in it. I’m concerned that the chlorine will damage the naturally present good microbes on the rinds, and inhibit proper fermentation. They look lovely and perfectly clean, but it’s hard to know for sure what’s there that is invisible. Which would be better. I suppose I could rinse them in a bowl of filtered water, but again, I had thought that there were good yeasts hanging out on organic produce skins.
To wash or not to wash… that is the question.
Thanks in advance,
Ananda
I am somewhat new to the fermenting world. I made this recipe in a much smaller batch and after a couple of days mold started forming on the top. There is a layer of mold now. Can I remove the mold and still use the lemons?
Question about the jar: can a large, regular glass jar be used, or is it necessary to use the food fermenter that you mentioned?
Also, has anyone ever tried this with oranges?
I strongly prefer fermenters, but any jar will work as long as you have a weight to keep the lemons submerged in brine, otherwise they will mold. I haven’t tried it with oranges, but I have tried it with limes and WOW! that is good.
I bought a jar of preserved lemons today at the farmer’s market and made the tapenade to go with the Moroccan-spiced roasted chicken (which I love!). The tapenade is so salty that I couldn’t eat it. Are the preserved lemons supposed to be extremely salty?
Could you post a picture? I can not envision what the almost quartered lemons are supposed to look like. Would slices work as well?
Hi Jasmine,
Hope I’m not too late and you still see this…I thought this video might help, shows how to make preserved lemons, her method is ever so slightly different but you get to see how the lemons should be cut and yes, according to this vid, you can just slice them, with the added bonus that they will be ready sooner.
I made these lemons and fermented them for 2 weeks. I am not sure where I went wrong and if I need to ferment them longer. I tried them this morning and they just taste like a salty lemon rind. I used meyer lemons and they just don’t taste like I thought they would. I am wondering what I can do with them at this point. Any suggestions are welcome.
I do SO wish you would just list the entire web site of the places where you like to buy things and the things you like to buy. Your “sources” page doesn’t work for me, never has. I’ve unblocked all my pop-up blockers and yada yada yada but nothing seems to work to open them. Can’t you (and all the other nutrient-dense bloggers) please just list the entire web site url??
It would be very helpful. If it’s a long url, shorten it by going to tiny url or snip url.com
Thanks for your kind attention. I would love to use some of the products you talk about, but I have no access to them if I can’t open the link.
If you’re using an adblocker, you will not see anything on the resources page. If you disable your adblocker, it should work.
Aren’t they lovely! I ended up ordering a case from our health foods store. You might still be able to get some from the shopping section of localharvest.org.