[Sca-cooks] Salted lemons

[Susan Lin]

I agree that the salt is an excellent preservative.  There are many things
that are preserved in salt and nothing else and they do not get refrigerated
(or didn't before refrigeration was available)  In the U.S. of A. we are a
culture of people very touchy about food safety.  Things I do having done
some research and having lived all over the world make others twitch.

I made preserved/salted lemons and left them on the counter and they were
fine.  I did not "can" them with either a water bath or under pressure.
Just lots of lemons and lots of salt.  Let them sit, added more lemons and
more salt until the jar was stuffed.  Then just let them sit.

Once we opened it to use we put it in the fridge.  Figured the constant
exposure to air from opening/closing might do something unpleasant if we
kept them out.  Nobody has ever gotten ill from these lemons.

Note:  When we use the lemons we always rinse them and even sometimes soak
them for a while.

My opinion is to open one of the jars, take out a lemon, rinse it and give
it a try - it should be salty but should not taste "off".

Good luck

shoshana

On Tue, Aug 25, 2009 at 3:32 PM, Jennifer Carlson <talana1 at hotmail.com>wrote:

>
> Urtatim's recipe reminded me:
>
>
>
> Last spring (after my tagine inquiry), I made up a few, small jars of
> salted lemons - just lemons packed with salt, nothing else added.  Then I
> put them aside and forgot about them.  They've been sitting at room
> temperature on a shelf in my kitchen four about four months now.
>
>
>
> I did not process them in a water bath or do anything else to them.  Are
> they still safe to eat, or should I pitch them?  They have not changed
> color, nor have the lids swollen nor is there any seepage.  Logic says
> salt+citric acid = ok, but paranoia says don't use them.
>
>
>
> Any canning experts out there?  I only know about canning things with
> sugar.
>
>
>
>
>
> Talana
>
>
>
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