All that lovely lemon rind........

[nonblonde007]

Hi everyone! This is my first post, although, I have been lurking for a very long time. I just made my first jar of preserved lemons and can't make myself toss all those wonderful rinds! Does anyone have any ideas on how to either dry or preserve them? I so adore grated rind on many dishes, and drinks, it seems sacrilege to see them go to waste. Thank you

[Kouign Aman]

You could freeze them spread thin on a cookie sheet, then place them in a container and store frozen.

[nonblonde007]

Thank you very much. Will they keep long this way?

[Kouign Aman]

Til they get freezer burn. So it depends on how tightly your container seals mostly. I'd expect about 6 months.

[Smithy]

nonblonde007, I'm missing something. Why do you have so much lemon rind? Is it from the lemons you squeezed to add the extra juice to your preserved lemons? In other words - please tell me your preserved lemons actually do have rinds. If not, then you should pitch the rinds into the preserved lemon batch.

Assuming that you're talking about the rinds of the extra lemons you squeezed for juice, then another way to treat them is to zest or grate them, then pack the grated peel into small containers and then freeze. It's a variation on what Kouign Aman suggested. The advantage of this method would be longer keeping time because it would be all packed together before freezing. The disadvantage would be a tougher time getting it apart (because it would be all packed together before freezing). You could figure on packing the grated peels into portions of a few ice cube trays so that you had little frozen chunks of approximately a teaspoon each.

You could also try mixing some lemon zest with salt (and pepper, if you like that flavor combination) so that you have lemon salt ready to use at a moment's notice.

Welcome to eGullet!

[andiesenji]

If you have a bunch of squeezed lemons, pare off just the colored part, grind it in a spice grinder (which is much quicker than using a grater, even a microplane) and add it to simple syrup and simmer gently (do not let it boil!) until the liquid has reduced by 1/3 or you have 2/3 the amount you began with.

Jar it up, allow it to cool and store in the fridge. This is great in quick breads, in glazes for cakes, in marinades, salad dressings and over ice cream.

Or, remove all the interior pulp, if the rind is extra thick, remove some of the white part - scrape it with a rounded spoon tip or a melon-baller.

Cut into strips and candy it. You can do it in the microwave. First it has to be boiled in three changes of plain water, then added to simple syrup and processed in the microwave until candied.

My method in RecipeGullet

Edited June 1, 2007 by andiesenji (log)

[nonblonde007]

Smithy

yes, I did put the lemons in whole, it was from the juice to cover them. I love the lemon salt idea!

andiesenji

I went ahead and froze them, but am considering getting more just to try the simple syrup.

Thanks to everyone for all the great ideas, that is the reason I have been lurking in the background for so long, you All are so generous with your wisdom and humor. I feel right at home here.

[jdtofbna]

Make Limoncello! Steep the zest of 12 lemons in a bottle of vodka for a week or more, make a sugar syrup of 2 cups cugar and 3 cups water, add to the lemon vodka and---voila!!

[nonblonde007]

THAT is the best idea yet! In fact, I'm going to buy another bag today and get it started. I Love Limoncello, *sigh*, thanks for the recipe

[andiesenji]

In an earlier post, I mentioned making citrus syrup with lemon peel. I use this for a base in many things, sherbet, other lemon desserts, lemon based drinks.

I removed the colored rind from 22 lemons - using a microplane would have taken much too long - using a vegetable peeler.

I spread the rind on a tray and allowed it to dry somewhat, for about an hour or so.

To make sure there is nothing in the grinder to add an unwanted flavor, I first clean it. Two heaping tablespoons of baking soda and some saltines or oyster crackers. Apply the top, depress the switch and shake and invert the grinder several times while it is running. Dump the stuff and wipe with a dry paper towel.

With scissors, cut the rind into 1-inch sections and fill the grinder.

Depress the switch while shaking and inverting the grinder until the batch is evenly chopped.

Continue until all the peel is ground.

This is about 1/4 of the finished batch.

It is not as finely ground as with a microplane, but for making citrus zest syrup, it isn't necessary.

I had a generous 2 cups of zest, not tightly packed.

Place the zest in a 2-quart pyrex measure or other microwavagle container (or you can cook it on the stove, simmer until it has reduced by 1/3)

Add water to the 1 1/2-quart mark.

Add sugar to bring the level of liquid to the 2-quart mark.

Microwave on high for 5 minutes, stir and microwave for another 5 minutes. Stir and let it sit for an hour or so. (Leave it in the microwave if it is not in use.)

Stir and microwave for 3 - 5 minutes sessions but do watch it to make sure it doesn't boil over, until it has reduced by about 1/3 and has the consistency of thin syrup.

At this point you can strain off some of the liquid and bottle it to store in the fridge.

You can place the remaining liquid and zest in a blender (after it has cooled some) and blend to produce much finer zest, which will be jarred with the remainng syrup and stored in the fridge for up to three months, or it can be frozen.

Before I developed this method, I spent hours grating lemons on a box grater (long before microplanes came on the scene), suffering sore hands, grated knuckles and aching muscles.