What am I going to do with these lemons?
A friend gifted me with a whole lot of lemons, and although I love lemon, I'm thinking that I ought to start considering how I'm going to use or preserve these things.
I don't want to make lemoncello. I was thinking that I could simply juice them and freeze the juice in cubes.
Anybody got any other ideas?
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23 Comments:
You could make lemon sorbet. You could make a big big batch of simple lemonade syrup. You could make candied lemon peel.
chisai at 6:04AM on 04/27/08
You could make preserved lemons. Claudia Roden has several recipes in The New Book of Middle Eastern Food - one involving salt and lemon juice, one with brine, and one with brine and oil. They last for a year and are delicious and versatile.
caley at 7:26AM on 04/27/08
How about lemon curd?
charm city cupcake at 10:24AM on 04/27/08
lemon meringue pie!
Lilartist at 10:28AM on 04/27/08
See this thread:
http://www.seriouseats.com/talk/2008/04/my-favorite-edible-gift-to-give-is.html
Scroll down to chisai's post of a wonderful Limoncello recipe.
Brownie at 11:47AM on 04/27/08
Preserved lemons is a great idea, as if yours (freezing). If you go with freezing, you should also consider freezing the zest, since there's so much flavor there.
renzata at 11:56AM on 04/27/08
Lemon marmalade is really easy to make. I use the recipe from Cook's Illustrated, which I'm sure you could find on their website. I just pour it into little canning jars and freeze it for later use.
I love the idea of freezing the juice, but renzata is right--you definitely want to freeze the zest, too.
stillSTH at 12:38PM on 04/27/08
Dry slices and grind for seasonings.
Juice and make cubes for lemon water.
Preserve them.
Make Indian lemon pickles.
Lemon poppy seed muffins. (these freeze well for a quick breakfast)
I have a Lisbon Lemon tree in my yard that yeilds over 1200 lemons a year.
I have recipes if you would like some.
bodaciousgirl at 1:57PM on 04/27/08
Yes, recipes, please!
If I slice and dry and grind them, what about the pith? Or am I peeling them first?
I tried preserving lemons in salt before, and I didn't like the result. It might have been the lemons -- and these are from the same tree. No idea what kind of tree; the lemons are from California and my friend and I are in Colorado.
So far the drying and juice/freeze are probably the most appealing. I really don't use lemon marmalade, and I really don't drink much lemonaid, either. Sometimes I'll squeeze a little lemon into water, but that's about as far as it goes.
Limoncello sounds good, but same friend (with same lemons) made limoncello from a previous batch and it tasted like lemon Pledge. It may have been her recipe, but I's rather not repeat that experiment just now. I'm mostly looking for a way to preserve the lemons in the most versatile and compact way, so when I need lemon flavor for sweet or savory, I've got something on hand to use, and it doesn't take up a lot of space in the meantime. Drying really sounds interesting...
Thanks for all the ideas. Maybe I'll do a lemon poundcake in the next few days and use some up that way. But there are still a lot more to go.
dbcurrie at 3:27PM on 04/27/08
I wash my lemon real good, then slice thin and lay on drying racks. (I have a dehydrator so they dry a bit faster for me) They need to dry completely - if they aren't completely dry they will not powder.
I grind them in the food processor, Some of the rind drys to hard and will not process. Just take the resulting powder with the solids and run it thru a mesh sieve. I like a 2 parts salt to 1 part lemon, but some prefer more or less lemon.
Amazing on blanched veggies, chicken, fish, etc.
I actually just made a batch this am for gifts. :)
I'll pull my recipes that I have collected and post them for you later today or tomorrow. :)
bodaciousgirl at 6:00PM on 04/27/08
@bodacious, that's so cool!
I absolutely love lemon, and I hate to turn them down when I get offered a bounty of them, but then I'm looking at all these lemons and trying to figure out how I'm going to use all of them before they go bad. And as soon as they're gone, I'm wishing I had more of them.
I definately want to try drying some. My new oven actually has a drying setting, and I've been wanting to try that. Lemons will be a good experiment. How long can you store it? Do you ever make it without the salt, or is that necessary?
dbcurrie at 11:18PM on 04/27/08
Well the salt "cures" it - but you know it never lasts long enough for me to see any problems. After a few months I'm making more.
I have just dusted the lemons and not added it to salt (Sugar is another option - GREAT for iced tea) and have used it on chicken and deserts.
I guess keep it sealed in an air tight container it should last quite a long time - what 6 mo maybe? Like I said - it never lasts that long here.
We mix it with margarita salt too - THAT NEVER lasts long.
bodaciousgirl at 1:17PM on 04/28/08
You can freeze the lemons whole! My mother used to do that when she had a Meyer lemon tree. When you need one, just pull it out of the freezer and let it soften up. They get a bit mushy so I wouldn't plan to slice them when they're defrosted, but you can still zest and juice them just fine.
Also, you could do lemon curd.
Hope that helps!
CookiePie at 1:31PM on 04/28/08
Blackberry or raspberry lemonade, of course!
Mizbee at 4:27PM on 04/28/08
I have a couple lemons in the oven now, on the "drying" setting. We'll see how this works. I've been wanting to try drying something with the new oven, so this is a good opportunity.
On an episode of Diary of a Foodie recently, they dried tomatoes. Wow, that looked like SUCH a good idea. When tomatoes are plentiful, either from my garden or the farmer's market, I always buy quantities and make sauce and freeze it, but there's always a limit to available freezer space. Now, I can't wait to try drying some tomatoes and see how they come out. If it works, it's gonna be great.
Meanwhile, dried lemons. I never would have thought of it!
dbcurrie at 8:12PM on 04/28/08
I got a great deal on cherry tomatoes a couple of weeks ago. I bought so many I dried almost 3 pints! They taste just like sun dried tomatoes! I'd give it a try - they are wonderful with eggs in the morning.
Keep me posted on your lemons!
bodaciousgirl at 1:23PM on 04/29/08
How about some delicious lemon bars? Fattening but worth it.
Catharine56 at 1:40PM on 04/29/08
Lemon sugar and lemon infused olive oil.
aoi33 at 9:09AM on 05/01/08
Squeeze them into glasses of Hoegaarden or Franziskaner hefeweizen.
jorach at 4:08PM on 05/01/08
Lemon drying experiment is complete. I dried a tray of them until they were completely dry, whizzed them in my spice grinder (aka used to be a coffee grinder) until they were a powder, and ran them through a fine sieve. There wasn't much that wasn't ground fine.
I didn't add either salt or sugar. Tasted it. This is lemon x10. Very lemony, and very fresh-tasting despite being dried. I could almost just eat the stuff with a spoon, if not for the pucker factor. Wow. Now I just need to figure out what the dry equivalent will be in recipes that call for juice and/or zest.
I now have another tray of lemons drying along with some tomatoes. Yes, I know tomatoes aren't actually in season, but I overbought tomatoes, and I'd rather dry some than watch them get all shrivelly and sad while they wait for me to eat them all.
dbcurrie at 4:46PM on 05/01/08
With the sudden cold spell, I think a giant pot of avgolemono would totally hit the spot.
Uhmn...can I come over now?
lorelei76 at 6:02PM on 05/01/08
If you want to try a great limoncello recipe, the one I've used for year is at
Divina Cucina.
Otherwise, you can certainly zest the lemons, juice them, and save the juice and zest in the freezer until you need it. You might want to put the juice in several 1/2 cup containers so you can thaw what you need quickly.
To reconstitute your dried lemon powder, figure out how much powder you got from one lemon (maybe dry and grind the slices from one and measure it) and add about 6 Tbs water. That's about how much liquid is in the skin and juice of a fresh lemon.
butterface at 7:15PM on 05/01/08
@butterface, that's probably a good idea, as far as reconstituting the dried lemons, or maybe next time I'll grind just one, measure it by weight and figure that's what equals a lemon's worth of juice and zest, then add liquid if the recipe needs that in addition to the flavor. Or (duh) grind it all, weigh it all, and divide by the number of lemons I used.
For many things I just go by taste and feel, so it's not really critical, it's more of a curiosity.
dbcurrie at 11:16PM on 05/01/08