The Collector of Tales
The Quay
Preserved Lemons
Preserved Lemons
Ingredients
A lot of un-waxed lemons for salting
Some un-waxed lemons for squeezing
A packet of salt (preferably sea salt)
water ( tap or bottled, it's all the same to the recipe)
Method
Cut the top and bottom off the lemon. Just enough to allow the fruit to sit upright on a table.
Make a cut in the top of each lemon as though you were cutting it in half but stop about two-thirds of the way down. Turn each lemon upside down and rotate by ninety degrees and make another slice at right-angles to the first in the same way. Repeat for each lemon.
Pour as much salt into each cut as will fit and then pack the lemons into a clean, sterilised jar. Pack as full as you can get them.
When you can get no more lemon s into the container, squeeze the juice out of some of the remaining unsalted lemons. Top up the jar with lemon juice and making sure that the jar is full, lid.
If there are more lemons to use, repeat.
Leave for about six weeks but shake up the contents now and again.
Observations
The cuts in the lemons should not quite cut the lemon in half or quarters. You can't over salt salted lemons so pack in as much salt as you can. If there are large spaces left, you can use half lemons, preferably cut lengthways. Try to ensure that the lemons are submerged. If you are unsure then it would pay to shake the jars occasionally to make sure that lemon juice and salt are covered over the lemons. I have read that if the top lemons grow mould this cut be scraped off. I have never experienced it so I have not tried it: not sure that I would want to! They keep for some time, going darker towards orange coloured, the older they get.