How preserved lemons work
Lemons are cut, packed with salt and pressed into a jar. The salt draws out their juice, and over a few weeks the peel softens and mellows into the salty, fragrant preserved lemon used in North African cooking.
Using Ball's recipe by weight
The Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving recipe, published by Clemson Cooperative Extension, is given by count and volume: 10 lemons and ½ cup of pickling salt. Lemons vary in size, so the same recipe can be quite different by weight. To find its percentage for your fruit, weigh your lemons and the salt, and divide: 1,000 g of lemons with 120 g of salt is 12%. Then use that percentage here to scale any batch.
Curing and storing
Following Ball's method: add a tablespoon of salt to the jar, pack salt into each lemon, and let the jar stand in a cool, dark place for 2 weeks, shaking it daily to spread the salt. Then refrigerate — they keep for up to 6 months. Use dried spices or herbs only; fresh ones can change the pH.
Sources: Clemson Cooperative Extension, Home & Garden Information Center, Traditional Preserved Lemons (from the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving); Morton Salt, Morton Coarse Kosher Salt — nutrition facts; Morton Salt, Morton Iodized Table Salt — nutrition facts; Diamond Crystal (Cargill), Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt — package label. All sources and how we use them.
Informational only — not professional advice.