Moroccan Preserved Lemons

I was gifted a massive bounty of Meyer lemons recently, as you can see below! These are all super mondo lemons, ranging from half a pound in weight to over a pound! Giant, giant lemon require more careful planning, because most of the time you really don’t need a pound of lemon for whatever you’re doing.

The first thing I decided on was to spread the wealth to my neighbors. I put 3 lemons in 6 little gift bags and stuck them on the doorsteps of the people in my building. Later, I saw a neighbor walking her dog (I like her and the dog), and I grabbed a bag of 3 for her too! Now, it’s all up to me. Other than the very obvious candied peels I’ll be making lots of, a double batch of lemon bars (had to do double because no lemons that small) for Ross, salts and sugars, lemon-ginger tea marmalade, curd, shortbread, and a few other random ideas, I needed to make some Moroccan-style preserved lemons! I started with these, and then started moving onto other ideas! I’ll just keep thinking up new things until I’ve used or otherwise preserved them all! Shoot me your ideas in comments, please, because nothing is going to go to waste!

If y’all didn’t know, these preserved lemons are a powerhouse of flavor with very little food use. I like them in salads, soups, and stews, but they get used in a lot of stuff. You can even use them in pastry, if you’re going for that sort of salty-sweet vibe.

In general, people use only the peels, rinsing them really, really well before cutting up for whatever they’re making. I keep the flesh when possible, largely due to my overwhelming hatred of food waste. Normally these are made with whole lemons, but mine were way too big to do that with. I cut the smaller ones into quarters lengthwise, then cut those quarters in half. The larger ones I did into sixths or eighths before cutting those wedges in half.

Here’s what you’ll need

non-iodized salt (I used kosher in most jars, different Hawaiian salts in other)

lemons

jars

spices (optional: cardamom, allspice, star anise, coriander, cumin, black pepper, bay leaves, cinnamon; sky’s the limit here)

olive oil (optional)

I cut all my lemons in the bowl so I didn’t lose any precious juice. You should do the same in case you need those precious juices to cover your lemons! Also, that Leaning Tower of Lemons in the bowl is cracking me up. Those weights are there for krauts I was also working on, since I wanted to put up about 3 gallons of different types to go through until spring or summer. You can use weights on your lemons if you want to, but it’s not required.

Here’s what you’ll do

Wash lemon, trim the ends off your lemons, then cut your lemons however you decided to cut them. This is a great time to raid your grocery store and stock up on lemons, since they’re really cheap when in season (now!). Make sure when you cut the ends off, you still have pith on the end. You’re not looking to see the pulp quite yet! I personally throw those ends into the jar, but y’all do what you like.

Spices go on the bottom, if you’re using them. Olive oil will go on the top if you’re using that (using oil is the traditional preparation for Moroccan Jews).

If you cut them the normal way, where you quarter them lengthwise without cutting all the way through the bottom end, pack as much salt in them as you can, then smoosh it all down into your jars. If you cut them a different way, eyeball it, but use a lot of salt in between layers of cut lemons. If you really don’t feel like it’s waaaaaaaaaaaay too much salt to be okay, you didn’t use enough. I generally assume about 2 tablespoons per normal sized lemon. Once it’s all smooshed in there, make sure it’s covered all the way with lemon juice. You shouldn’t see any lemons sticking out at all! It’s okay if you ran out of lemons and needed to top them off with bottled, too: you are the only one who’s going to know it happened!

After that, lid. Once or twice a day for the next two weeks, shake those bad boys up. Check them every couple of days to make sure they’re still covered in juice (or oil) - if not, add more! No bigs! Over the course of those two weeks, your salt is going to stop being visible, and that’s really great news. These will keep in the pantry for at least a year. At some point (this varies for me), all the liquid will become a pectin jelly that’s encasing your lemons instead of plain juice. Also okay. Once you get into a jar, the jar should live in the fridge.

Note: although most sources claim 1 year shelf life, I’ve kept a jar in use for 5 years before to no ill effect. I’ve also kept jars in the pantry (because lost them, thought I was out, and made more) for 2-3 years and had them be fine. So just check your old jars for signs of spoilage, but otherwise good to go!