Preserved Lemons

5 from 1 vote

Level up your cooking with these easy preserved lemons! They add intense savoury lemon flavour to everything from stews to salad dressings.

Prep Time15

PROCESSING TIME21

Total Time21 15

Servings: servings

6-8 Meyer lemons 4-6 if using regular lemons
6-8 tablespoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt 4-6 tablespoon if using regular lemons
1 cup lemon juice from about 5 Meyer lemons

Sterilize your mason jar (see blog post for details).
Wash your lemons well with a brush under warm running water.
Trim away both the top and bottom ends of the lemons.
Cut lemons almost into quarters, being careful not to cut all the way through the fruit. Leave about half an inch intact on the bottom of each lemon.
Pack each cut lemon with about a tablespoon of salt, then place them snugly into the Mason jar.
Top jar with enough lemon juice to fully immerse the lemons. Push lemons down and add more juice, if needed.
Close jar and store in a cool dark place for 3-4 weeks. Check the bottle weekly to make sure that lemons remain submerged under the juice. If needed, open jar, press lemons down with a spatula and top off with more lemon juice.
Once lemon rinds have softened, place the jar in the fridge. Preserved lemons will keep in the fridge for 6 months (up to a year, if stored correctly).
To use: Take a piece of lemon out of the bottle and rinse it. Dice or mince the preserved peel and pulp, and add it to stews, salad dressings or more.

You will need about a dozen Meyer lemons for this recipe. 6 for the jar and 5-6 for juicing.
Lemons vary in size, so you may need more or less lemons to fill a 1 litre jar. Usually, Meyer lemons are smaller than regular lemons (but not always).
You cannot substitute a shelf-staple lemon juice product made with lemon juice concentrate (like ReaLemon) for fresh lemon juice.
These preserved lemons take about 3-4 weeks (or longer) to process. They need this much time to develop flavour.
Label your preserved lemons with the date you made them, so you can keep track of when they might start going bad.
If you notice a strange smell or any mould in your jar at any time, discard the lemons.
Please sterilize your jar before making your preserved lemons. You can learn how to sterilize jars here: https://www.thespruceeats.com/how-to-sterilize-canning-jars-1327595