Preserving with salt - a case study

Salt.

What a glorious, simple, and incredibly useful ingredient! Essential in the kitchen to bring the dish together: salt is the orchestrator, if you will will, tactfully combining the different instruments together to make pleasing music.

But also salt has been used for thousands of years to preserve foods, LONG before canning and refrigeration came around. Salt can be used to preserve meats, fish, and vegetables for a year or longer. While I haven't had experience preserving my own meats (yet), I have been known to play with lactic acid fermentation of vegetables and now - citrus!

For lactic acid fermentation, creating a brine of salt and juices from plant matter makes for an environment inhospitable to pathogenic organisms and allows for lactic acid producing bacteria to thrive and pre-digest our food for us. Also, they are probiotics when eaten and aid in good disgestion. The salt acts to pull fluid and tannins (what makes the raw rind bitter if eaten) out of the plant matter via a solute gradient.

What I found when making this recipe, is that I believe the salt also pulls pectin (the stuff used to make jam & jellies, derived from citrus) out of the rind as the liquid in my jar is very thick and gooey! Pectin is an awesome prebiotic (feeds the beneficial bacteria in our intestines, so I will have to find some fun ways to use the brine as well. I have read that the brine is superb in Bloody Mary's as a salty-citrus-y kick in the pants! Will have to try this..

Preserved Lemons

12 lemons

Lots of salt**

1 cinnamon stick (optional)

1 bay leaf (optional)

3 cloves (optional)

4 coriander seeds (optional)

4 peppercorns (optional)

Sterilized mason jar

Knife

1. Cut 6-7 lemons into fourths, but cut only to 1/2 inch of bottom, leaving the sections attached at the bottom. Pack lemons with salt, approximately 1 tablespoon salt in each lemon.

2. Put a tablespoon of salt in the bottom of the mason jar and pack the lemons tightly in the jar. Add optional ingredients as desired, throughout lemon layers. Sprinkle a layer of salt over the top.

3. Cover with lemon juice squeezed from remaining lemons. All lemons should be submerged, you may need additional lemon juice.

4. Cover and set in a warm(ish) place out of direct sunlight for 30 days, shaking each day to distribute salt brine. When the 30 days is up, you can refrigerate it, or not. Just keep all remaining lemons submerged in juice as you remove some for use.

**Don't use iodized table salt or any salt with additives. Sea salt should be ok. I used Kosher salt and then was sad to later find out that it contains anti-caking agents, so watch your ingredient label.

Preserved Lemon Basmati Rice

3 cups freshly cooked rice (hot)

1 preserved lemon rind, pulp removed

1 handful fresh basil

2 tablespoons butter

1. Combine and enjoy! (If you don't want the lemons super salty for your dish,

rinse them with water before you use to remove some salt.)

Makes a great side dish or a component of a main; seen here with shrimp sausages from the Kocurek Family Charcuterie (Austin Saturday farmer's market).

I am looking forward to making a tagine - a Moroccan dish made with preserved lemons and delicious!!

And folks, don't stress about the shaking the jar every day. I didn't, and they turned out perfect! Another reason I love fermentation!

2 tips I've read about juicing lemons but haven't got around to trying yet. Supposedly, you can get more juice from your citrus if you:

a) Put them in the freezer for a couple hours then remove and let return to room temperature.

b) OR - boil them in water for 2-3 minutes, remove, allow to cool.