Preserved Lemons

Wash your canning jars with soap and water to remove any food residue from the previous use. Rinse well.

Sterilize the jars by placing them into warm water in a large pot. Allow the water to boil. Boil your jars and lids for 10 to 15 minutes. Carefully remove them with oven mitts and tongs.

You can quartered lengthwise the lemons or sliced them completely if preferred. Traditional preserved lemons have a cross hatch lengthwise cut but remain attached at the base.

Add salt to the bottom of the jar, then opened slightly the lemons and add salt in between the cuts of each side of the lemons, then pack them tightly in the jar until no space is left. Sprinkle some salt and jiggle the jar so the salt will fill all the free spaces between the lemons.

Cover the jar and keep it at room temperature in a closet or food cabinet for a month.

You are going to check on the jar is during the first 3 days, what will happened is that the salt will extract the juice from the lemon, softening the rind. Once lemons have settled in jar, you to verify if the juice produced by the lemons is enough to covered all lemons, you might need to add more lemon juice to ensure the lemons remain covered. Keep the jar on a closet for 4 weeks.

When using this lemons:

To use, remove a lemon from brine and rinse under cold running water. Pat dry with paper towel. Use a sharp knife to cut flesh from rind. Discard flesh. Use as according to the recipe.