Post Punk Kitchen Forum

My friend bought me some preserved lemons for Christmas. I'm really excited about using them, but had a question I thought I would send out to the forum.

I don't think I'll be using a whole lemon in anything, ever. Are the lemons like pickles? You just pop one out with a fork and cut off the part you want and can put the leftover back in the jar. It says on the jar to refrigerate after opening, so I'm going to do that.

I've had really bad pickle experiences where I put the leftover back in the jar and contaminated the whole thing. That why I think I'm going to use a fork and knife to touch the lemon and not my fingers.

Any thoughts? The only other thing I can come up with is to keep the cut up lemon in the fridge in it's own container and hope I use the whole thing before it spoils.

Looking forward to salty lemon-ness.

Preserved lemons really are delicious. They are not like typical cucumber pickles in that they are not made with vinegar and pickling lime. Rather they are only preserved with salt and lemon juice so the texture is not crunchy.

They are usually used in Moroccan and North African recipes like tagines and stews but their use is varied.

If you want to only use a piece of one in a recipe, definitely don't use your fingers to pluck one out as that can introduce bacteria, like you mentioned. Instead use a fork to stab one and then a knife to slice off however much you need, while the lemon is still in its own brine. A lot of recipes call for you to use only the skin and discard the pulp, but I don't mind the pulp. Just be mindful that they can be really salty, so if need be, you can quickly rinse to remove some extra salt.

Not really what you asked, but my husband and I were eyeing some preserved lemons at the farmers market yesterday and thinking that a little preserved lemon (very little) in a dirty martini would be delicious. I'm pregnant so I'll have to wait to test this theory, but it sounds really good.

Cool. Thanks for the advice everybody.

You can probably freeze the leftover lemon bits if you're concerned. I made preserved lemons in the freezer from the directions in Vegan Eats World and they were great. I think the salt keeps them from freezing really hard, so I was still able to slice off a chunk while frozen.

I am pretty sure I saw on TV someone blend one in with a pesto once.