"Dee Randall" > wrote in message
...
>
> "Hoges in WA" > wrote in message
> ...
{snipped}>
>
> Thanks for all the uses. I have a gallon (it says Italy on the top) jar
> with a snap-down metal lid with a rubber gasket, that I used on the last
> go-round, that I must've got at someplace like Cost Plus. As I recall, I
> didn't have THAT many lemons in ratio to the salt I used to fill up that
> jar. The lemons were cheap in comparison to the salt I used. Don't you
> completely fill the jar with salt around the lemons? As I recall I used
> kosher salt. I have a place that is cool and dark, would that be better
> than 75F and light during the day? Also, since lemons have so much
> crappy-oil on them, what did you do to get it off, as well as some of the
> blue markings that are on the lemons?
> Lots of problems to work out for me. Thanks for any advice.
> Dee Dee


This is not an exact science, since people have been making these for
centuries.



Take several lemons, saving some for the juice you will need. I like to use
organic, but if you don't have access, any good ripe ones will do. If
you've got them from your back yard or one of your friends' backyards
they're probably as close to organic as you're going to get anyway.



Wash them with detergent & rinse, to remove the agricultural wax if they are
commercial. You'll know if they need washing.



I like to completely quarter mine, but many recipes say to quarter them
lengthwise but not to cut all the way through the end. Whatever.



Cram them into a clean jar and pour a lot of salt over them, enough to
cover. Yes, it's a lot of salt. However, if you buy cooking salt, it's
cheap as chips. I don't know about kosher, it's not on my list of
obligations (or, as an old Australian saying goes, "it's all Hebrew to me")

Roll 'em in salt, put some salt at the bottom of the jar, half way up the
jar, on top of the jar. Just chuck salt in til it looks like there's a lot
of salt in there.



Fill the jar with lemon juice from the reserved lemons. This seems to use
more damn lemons than you've already put in the jar.



Put the lid on and shake well.



Put in the refrigerator (probably not necessary). For the first several
days, take the jar out twice a day and shake. The salt will draw moisture
from the lemons and soon you will have a brine with no undissolved salt. At
that point you can forget the jar in the back of the fridge for a while.
The rinds will mellow beautifully. A cool dark place will do if you want
them out of the fridge. I don't have mine in the fridge at the moment
because it's winter down here so they're just sitting in a cupboard.



I think that provided there's plenty of salt, plenty of lemon juice, plenty
tight lid and plenty of cool dark, there's not much else to it. Super clean
jars that have been dried in a low oven are a good idea too.



Hoges in WA