When life gives you… nevermind. The Meyer lemon tree in our neighbors’ yard is packed and they’re ripe. It’s overflowing into our yard so I feel like it’s my obligation to clean off our side of the tree so they don’t rot and go to waste. I’ll never drink enough lemonade to use all these suckers so I decided that since it’s preserving season… I should preserve some.
This is maybe the easiest thing in the world to do with a lemon, other than eat it raw. You just have to be patient… but you don’t even really have to be patient, you just have to be able to forget. This works out great for me because usually my problem is remembering, so I can just forget about these and whenever I do remember they’re in my cabinet, they’ll probably be perfect!
Step one: rinse lemons and slice in half.
Step two: cover lemons in kosher salt.
Step three: forget about lemons for 1-3 months.
Step four: eat.
The details (adapted from Charcuterie):
* Use some sort of nonreactive container – I used a glass jar.
* Make sure your lemons are completely submerged in salt. Totally covered.
* They’ll be usable after a month but better after a little longer. They’ll last pretty much forever in the salt… when I say forever I mean months, not like… ten years.
To use them rinse off the salt, scrape out the insides and chop up the rind or do whatever you’re planning to do with it… you can use them in salad too, in which case you should blanch them in simmering water quickly to reduce the intensity.
