Preserved Lemons

Outlander Kitchen

I had never used preserved lemons before, but recently I came across at least two different recipes I wanted to try that called for them. I ended up buying some for the first recipe, that wasn't from a book, but then I saw there was a recipe to make them in both this book, Outlander Kitchen (2) and also It's Always Freezer season. (They are practically the same, so I probably won't be making the other one on camera, but I will be checking for more recipes using them in that book now that I have these!)

I actually started these back at the end of July, but they take weeks to soften before they're ready to use. I think at four weeks they would have been usable, but with all the other things happening in my life it took at least six before I actually used them. That's fine; they'll last at least six months in the fridge.

So...now that I have a ton of these, what else should I use them for?

Captions

[00:00]: [Music]
[00:04]: hello and welcome to cooking the books
[00:06]: with Heather today we're working out of
[00:09]: it's a new book for us but this probably
[00:11]: won't be the first recipe you guys see
[00:14]: from this book
[00:16]: um but we're going to be working from
[00:17]: Theresa Carl Sanders Outlander Kitchen 2
[00:20]: cookbook I don't think we've made
[00:22]: anything from this one yet but I've got
[00:25]: a bunch of things marked and we're going
[00:26]: to be making another thing after this
[00:29]: but today we are making
[00:32]: preserved lemons
[00:34]: so
[00:36]: I don't think I've ever had preserved
[00:37]: lemons I've certainly never made
[00:39]: preserved lemons I've never cooked with
[00:42]: them before but all of a sudden they're
[00:43]: everywhere
[00:45]: um there's a recipe that I want to make
[00:47]: that has preserved lemons in it and I've
[00:50]: got to make that soon so I'm not gonna
[00:52]: be able to use these because these are
[00:53]: going to take I think three to four
[00:55]: weeks
[00:58]: um at least so yeah you won't see this
[01:00]: for quite a while from when we're
[01:02]: starting it
[01:03]: um
[01:05]: so I'm gonna have to buy some and then
[01:06]: I'll be able to compare and contrast but
[01:09]: there are a few recipes in this book
[01:10]: that use the preserved lemons and I also
[01:14]: found a recipe for preserved lemons in
[01:17]: Ashley christensen's it's always freezer
[01:20]: season book but this one seemed a little
[01:21]: bit
[01:22]: easier I don't know it's all very
[01:24]: similar but
[01:26]: I wanted to make something with them
[01:28]: from this book so I decided to go ahead
[01:30]: and do it from this book
[01:32]: so most of this is preparation and I
[01:35]: have washed my quart jar with hot soapy
[01:39]: water and left it to air dry
[01:42]: I've washed this lid We're Not Gonna
[01:45]: seal it so a lid like this it has it's
[01:48]: airtight it has like a silicone thing in
[01:51]: it it's plastic
[01:52]: that's really great for me I end up
[01:55]: using the other lids and I don't know
[01:57]: which of the other the two-piece Lids
[01:60]: the wax part that's been sealed has been
[02:02]: used or not and
[02:03]: anyway I prefer these when it's just
[02:06]: going to go in the refrigerator which is
[02:07]: what this is going to do
[02:10]: so that's been washed I've washed my
[02:12]: hands
[02:13]: warm and soapy water and I've got lemons
[02:18]: quite a few of them I don't feel like
[02:20]: they're all going to fit in here
[02:24]: but we'll fit in what we can and that's
[02:27]: why I haven't pre-prepared them I'm
[02:29]: going to do it as I go so I only
[02:32]: cut up the ones I need
[02:34]: um
[02:35]: but these have been scrubbed with a
[02:37]: brush with warm water so that they don't
[02:41]: get any dirt or impurities and these
[02:43]: should be blemish free
[02:46]: preferably organic mine or not
[02:49]: but
[02:51]: the first thing we need to do is to add
[02:54]: some salt so really it's salt and lemons
[02:57]: in a jar and that is it I'm using this
[03:00]: coarse sea salt because she says to use
[03:02]: coarse or kosher salt I happen to have
[03:05]: this
[03:06]: um for something else that I made
[03:09]: I don't remember exactly uh and it's
[03:13]: just kind of going to waste and I figure
[03:15]: it'll be fine we're going to start with
[03:18]: a little bit in the bottom of the jar
[03:21]: but otherwise we're not really measuring
[03:23]: this
[03:24]: and I'm going to put some in here that
[03:26]: I'm going to use with my hands
[03:29]: and I'll put more in there if I need it
[03:31]: so I'm going to start with some of the
[03:33]: smaller ones and we're going to cut
[03:36]: uh the tops and the bottoms off
[03:40]: basically have those
[03:43]: um end pieces
[03:46]: and then
[03:48]: we're going to cut this into quarters
[03:50]: but not fully so we're going to go all
[03:52]: but
[03:53]: like a half an inch
[03:56]: that may be a little bit too much down
[04:00]: like that
[04:02]: maybe a little more on that one
[04:05]: so we have this sort of wobbly more
[04:08]: easily
[04:10]: um
[04:12]: mushed into the jar thing and we're
[04:15]: going to
[04:16]: pack it with salt
[04:19]: so
[04:20]: we're going to pack the salt into these
[04:22]: lemons liberally sprinkling it between
[04:25]: the quarters
[04:29]: just to kind of
[04:31]: make sure it gets all in there
[04:35]: we're going to use a lot of salt and
[04:37]: then we're going to put this in our jar
[04:39]: and we're going to
[04:41]: kind of
[04:44]: firmly
[04:46]: um pack these in so I'm going to keep
[04:49]: doing that with the rest of my lemons
[04:60]: in the end
[05:02]: they should be completely submerged in
[05:05]: their own juices which
[05:07]: mine are not I don't know if I could
[05:11]: have done a better job
[05:13]: um
[05:15]: smooshing these down but she says to add
[05:19]: more lemon juice one two
[05:22]: if you need it
[05:24]: so I'm gonna juice a lemon
[05:27]: I think that the size of my lemons and
[05:29]: the shape of this jar not being fully up
[05:32]: and down I'm having like
[05:34]: probably didn't work for work as well
[05:37]: for my favor but
[05:39]: I'm not worried about straining out
[05:41]: these seeds because guess what
[05:43]: there are seeds in there already
[05:50]: almost covered at that point but I think
[05:52]: I'm gonna need
[05:54]: maybe not some more
[05:58]: that is good
[06:01]: that is pretty much covered
[06:05]: and
[06:06]: the last thing we need to do
[06:09]: sets get a little bit of this lemon
[06:11]: juice off my hands is put some more of
[06:14]: this salt over top
[06:23]: so for me I used eight lemons
[06:27]: um but only about
[06:29]: five of them are in there and I used the
[06:31]: other three just for their juices
[06:34]: I'm going to put this lid on
[06:36]: and we're going to let it sit at room
[06:38]: temperature for two to three days and
[06:41]: each day we're going to turn it upside
[06:42]: down
[06:44]: um and shake it to redistribute the salt
[06:47]: and the liquids
[06:49]: um I will show you what that looks like
[06:53]: when we do it the first time but um
[06:56]: yeah
[06:57]: after that we put it in the refrigerator
[07:00]: and where we and then we turn it upside
[07:03]: down another every other day or so for
[07:06]: three to four weeks
[07:08]: we'll show you what we need to do with
[07:09]: this
[07:10]: probably not talk about it very much
[07:12]: because I just told you
[07:14]: and then let you know what we think
[07:16]: in about four weeks
[07:18]: okay so this is what it looks like
[07:20]: day two
[07:22]: um
[07:24]: probably been about
[07:26]: I don't know a little over 12 hours so
[07:28]: not quite 24.
[07:29]: um
[07:30]: our preserved lemons I'm going to
[07:34]: turn it upside down
[07:36]: shake it up a little bit
[07:38]: there's still
[07:41]: undissolved salt in there but that looks
[07:43]: like it helped somewhat and I'm a little
[07:46]: concerned that
[07:49]: um kind of see not all of the
[07:53]: lemons are under under the water anymore
[07:57]: under the water the lemon juice and salt
[08:01]: um
[08:02]: but we'll hope that's okay
[08:06]: yes that's
[08:08]: all of my canned items back there that
[08:12]: uh I need to find
[08:14]: somewhere to store
[08:16]: all right we are on day three of this
[08:19]: and most of the salt has
[08:23]: dissolved and it is time to put this in
[08:27]: the refrigerator where we will
[08:29]: uh do the same thing every couple of
[08:32]: days until the skins have softened and
[08:36]: then they'll be done she says three to
[08:38]: four weeks
[08:40]: okay so this has been in the
[08:41]: refrigerator for a while and it's like
[08:43]: not quite all of the
[08:47]: salt is remaining well it wasn't quite
[08:50]: all dissolved anyway but I'm sure it's
[08:52]: fine
[08:53]: um so I'm just shaking it up
[08:54]: putting it back in I think we are
[08:57]: almost a week total and I think it's
[09:01]: supposed to take something like three or
[09:03]: four weeks I will check that out but
[09:06]: um I'm gonna keep doing that every
[09:07]: couple days just make sure you know it
[09:10]: doesn't all just get settled to the
[09:11]: bottom
[09:12]: and we'll see you when it's done
[09:18]: on this episode of cooking the books
[09:21]: with Heather you watched me make
[09:22]: preserved lemons from The Outlander
[09:25]: Kitchen 2 Cookbook by Theresa Carl
[09:28]: Sanders this one is to the new world and
[09:30]: back again
[09:31]: and I do have to apologize for my usual
[09:34]: uh laundry in the background it's very
[09:38]: loud right now
[09:40]: um
[09:41]: anyway so we made the preserved lemons
[09:43]: right now it has been two full months so
[09:47]: it's been at least eight weeks since we
[09:49]: started these and we did uh leave them I
[09:52]: think at about four weeks I felt the
[09:55]: rinds and they were softened which they
[09:57]: should be
[09:58]: um so these are the ones I made and I
[09:60]: was going to show you the difference
[10:01]: between the ones I bought since I ended
[10:03]: up having to buy some for a recipe a
[10:06]: different recipe
[10:07]: uh that I was making before these were
[10:11]: done anyway so these are definitely
[10:14]: smaller you can kind of see
[10:17]: I don't know if
[10:19]: you can kind of see that they're I mean
[10:21]: this is a much smaller jar and there are
[10:23]: two of them in here
[10:25]: um
[10:26]: and I think out there are two in just
[10:27]: the bottom of this uh so they are a lot
[10:31]: smaller they're a little bit darker
[10:35]: um Browner sort of I don't know if
[10:38]: that's just with age I don't know how
[10:39]: long these have been aged they are
[10:42]: Moroccan preserved lemons so I don't
[10:45]: know if that's anything
[10:47]: a little different but um
[10:51]: she says rinse and cut to your liking so
[10:54]: I didn't I wasn't aware that
[10:56]: most of the recipes that I've seen that
[10:58]: use these only use the zest part of the
[11:02]: Rind
[11:03]: um so you just rinse it and get rid of
[11:06]: everything but sort of the very outer
[11:09]: layer of the Rind
[11:11]: um if you have any other recipes that
[11:13]: use other parts I'd love to see them I
[11:14]: just haven't seen any of those and if
[11:16]: you have any other recipes for preserved
[11:19]: lemons
[11:20]: please let me know in the comments down
[11:21]: below because I now have a lot to use up
[11:24]: there is one other we've made one recipe
[11:27]: which you'll see soon with the ones that
[11:30]: we made from this book and we really
[11:32]: liked that so I'll definitely make those
[11:33]: again
[11:35]: but there is one other recipe but it's
[11:37]: really a cold weather type recipe I
[11:39]: believe it was a warm
[11:41]: um a warm drink so we're gonna wait a
[11:44]: little bit on that one before we make it
[11:46]: but we will probably make that as well
[11:49]: but I I found this
[11:51]: really easy
[11:54]: um you just kind of there's a lot of
[11:55]: salt
[11:56]: takes a lot of lemons
[11:59]: um
[12:00]: but it's pretty easy you just sort of
[12:03]: let it sit and remember about it
[12:05]: remember to put it in the refrigerator
[12:08]: you know when she tells you to you know
[12:10]: just two or three days
[12:12]: um is all it sits out for for that
[12:16]: portion and then
[12:18]: it's done and then it just can sit in
[12:20]: your refrigerator for I think she says
[12:21]: up to six months so
[12:24]: um but I don't know depending on how
[12:28]: much lemons are in your area I don't
[12:30]: know really the difference between
[12:32]: making your own and buying them as far
[12:34]: as you know cost wise
[12:37]: and it depends if you only need a few
[12:39]: and this is only I think this was a
[12:41]: total of three because there are two in
[12:43]: here and I've used one I believe so it
[12:46]: was only three in this jar so really it
[12:49]: depends what you like how many you use
[12:52]: if you have a bunch of recipes that use
[12:53]: them if you really like to use them
[12:56]: um then making your own probably makes
[12:57]: good sense or if you have a lemon tree
[13:00]: or access to very cheap lemons
[13:03]: sometimes they're much more expensive
[13:06]: I think in the winter Citrus tends to be
[13:08]: cheaper
[13:10]: I'll have to actually pay attention to
[13:11]: that but anyway
[13:13]: so I would do it again if I had recipes
[13:17]: that I wanted to use that use it in
[13:20]: but as this was the first time I really
[13:23]: use preserved lemon
[13:25]: I mean and we did like the recipe so you
[13:28]: know we'll see we'll see if we end up
[13:29]: really liking it and and end up putting
[13:32]: it into our rotation so
[13:34]: anyway
[13:35]: if you've enjoyed watching me make this
[13:37]: please give me a thumbs up hit the
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[13:41]: friends and come back and watch me make
[13:44]: something else next week
[13:46]: [Music]