From Forage. Gather. Feast.
photo by Marla Aufmuth
In my neighborhood, lemons thrive in the foggy, never too-cold or hot microclimates. People rich in lemons give them away by the bulging bagful. If you’re a luck recipient of these, making preserved lemons is a great way to use them. They are usually Meyer lemons, which are less sour than true lemons and have thinner skins, but they work as well. Once you have these they quickly become staples. These come from Northern Africa originally and were used in Moroccan tangine.
Yield: 1 Quart
10 lemons, washed
1 cup Kosher salt
·Choose the four best looking lemons and slice the tips where the branches held the lemons off, and then slice them into 6 segments, but don’t cut all the way through, they should stay attached at the base.
·
Sprinkle salt between the segments and add 2 tablespoons of salt to the bottom of a jar.
Juice the remaining lemons
Put the segmented lemons and (and I use some of the rinds from the juiced lemons) into the jar, pressing them down so they all fit.
Cover them all with lemon juice. You may need to juice more lemons.
·
Shake the jar every few days.
These are salt and acid, so don’t need to be refrigerated, but will last longer if you do so.
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