A Beginner’s Guide to Preserved Lemons

They say when life hands you lemons, make lemonade. So when life hands you preserved lemons, it stands to reason that you can make lemonade all year round. Preserving lemons isn’t just for Aesop’s fabled ant preparing for a long winter, it’s also the go-to flavour-enhancer for some of this country's hottest chefs and restaurateurs in their signature dishes. From roasted chicken and asparagus, to even sorbet, there are lots of ways you can get creative with jarred lemons. If you’re jonesing for a citrus-y boost to uplift your home cooking without any of that lemon sourness, preserving your own lemons should be on your to-do list.

What are preserved lemons?

Preserved lemons involve taking the entire fruit—juice, membranes, rind, and all—and preserving it in a mason jar with salt. Rob Bragagnolo, head chef at Casa Paco, a Spanish restaurant in Toronto, says the process “is incredibly easy but you need some patience for the final product to come to fruition.” He typically preserves at least two batches at a time as the process takes a month.  For the tools involved, he says, “All you need are a large bowl, two lemons, 1 kg of coarse sea salt, and a large mason jar.”

Chef Antonio Park, the Montreal-based entrepreneur behind city hot spots like Park Resto, Cafe Bazin, Jatoba, and Yama, likes to add a little oomph to his version with sugar, fresh lemon juice, peppercorns, and a bay leaf.

How do you preserve lemons?

Bragagnolo’s battle-tested method for preserved lemon involves making sure the salt covers all of the fruit. He likes to cut his lemons into quarters, making sure to get rid of any seeds, and placing the quarters and the salt in a big bowl, tossing thoroughly so the salt coats every corner. He then transfers them to a mason jar, sealing them tightly and refrigerating for a month. 

“It's important that the lemons are in contact with salt throughout that time, so if you need to shake up the mason jar do so to make sure the salt is evenly distributed,” he adds.

Put them in the fridge or in a cool, dark place (like a cold storage or cellar) and wait a month. “Every week or so give the jar a good shake,” he advises, noting that the liquid will take on a yellow hue during the curing process, but that’s normal. You know they’re ready to use when you open the jar and it has a “delightful intense lemon aroma—similar to lemonade.“ But Bragagnolo warns that you probably won’t need to use as much of the lemon as you think you will, due to their concentrated flavour. “Start with a half of a quarter lemon,” he suggests. “Cut the lemon piece, skin and all, into very fine pieces.”

What is the flavour profile of preserved lemons?

If you’re generally worried about using fresh lemons because of their acidity, you may want to try the preserved kind as they’re a, “magical seasoning agent,” according to Bragagnolo, who says they “add a salty/savory/citrusy ‘je ne sais quoi’ like nothing else I know. In one bite you get refreshing citrus, salt, an almost indescribable note that makes everything it touches sing.”

Trinity Market Chef Matt Dean Pettit explains that the “rich, robust” flavour profile is made possible because of the salt preservation, which he says “helps temper” the sourness originally found in fresh lemons.

Preserving lemons is great way to reduce waste and save money

Yes, we might all be motivated primarily by our taste buds, but preserving lemons can also be a climate-conscious way to reduce waste and save money. When buying a bag of lemons or in bulk when they’re on sale, it may be difficult to fully use the entire bag before they go bad, and most recipes only call for fresh lemon juice, while the rest of the fruit gets discarded in the bin. Chef Marvin Palomo of Toronto restaurant Vela says preserving the lemons “is a great way to utilize [your] excess amount of lemons at home [and] being able to use the whole lemon rather than just the juice.”

How should I cook with preserved lemons? 

Bragagnolo likes to mix a finely chopped quarter of a preserved lemon with olive oil to turn it into a versatile dressing for grilled vegetables, salads or roasted chicken. At his restaurant, he uses them instead of salt to inject flavour into vinaigrettes, crudité dressings, and sauces for fish dishes. 

Chef Park loves using preserved lemons sweet applications such as cocktails, pastries and sorbet. He also suggests adding 2 ounces of preserved lemon juice to your freshly squeezed lemons in any lemonade recipe for extra citrus flavour.

Are there any nutritional benefits to preserved lemons? 

Registered dietitian Meghan Stock of MLS Nutrition notes that while fresh lemons are an excellent source of vitamin C, potassium, and B6, preserving them “adds probiotics from the fermentation. This adds a lot of really healthy bacteria that can improve our gut microbiome.” Unlike lemon juice, which is robbed of all the nutrient-dense membranes, preserved lemons also offer the benefit of fibre. 

The only important health concern to note is, Stock says, is the lack of probiotics in store-bought preserved lemons because “they will likely have been pasteurized for food safety. If so, this will have killed the bacteria from fermentation, so the gut health benefits will not be there.”

Trusty pick: Beldi Preserved Lemons, $10

The splurge: Casablanca Market Moroccan Preserved Lemons, $25