Many Moroccan dishes call for preserved lemon. They are really easy to make and I encourage you to try them! It takes a couple of months to get them usable, but it’s worth the wait! If you don’t use them often, make a pint rather than a quart; I’ve included the instructions for that. They will keep for about a year. My last batch kept for 18 months.
Preserved Lemons
(One quart jar, wide mouth, with lid and ring; )
6-8 lemons for a quart or 4-5 for pint, with paraffin scrubbed off the outside
kosher salt
2 cinnamon sticks
2 bay leaves
6 cloves, whole
10 allspice berries
Cut 4 lemons in quarters cutting down toward the stem end but stopping before the end, so they look like stars. Put a tsp or so of salt in the bottom of a sterilised quart jar (put in boiling water for a couple of minutes then air dry). Push the first lemon, open side down, into the bottom of the jar. Add in a few cloves and allspice and another tsp of salt. Push in the next lemon. Put cinnamon sticks and bay leaves along the sides. Keep layering lemons, salt and spices, pushing down hard on the lemons so they release their juice. The number of lemons will vary due to varying sizes of lemons, so layer them until the jar is about one inch from lip. They should be pretty tight. If you don’t have enough juice to cover the lemons, use fresh juice from more lemons until there is enough (do NOT use bottled juice here!). You are making a salt and lemon juice brine to preserve the lemons.
You can make a pint jar instead, just use fewer lemons and halve the spices. Just make sure the jar is sterilised properly.
You do NOT have to process this jar with heat, the lemons and salt will do the job. Just seal the jar and put it in a cabinet. You need to shake the jar once a day for the first coupla weeks, so I kept it in my coffee cup cupboard so I’d remember. You can start using them after a month, but two is better. They get perfect after about six months. You could see some white web looking stuff stuff on them, it’s just a natural enzyme, it has no taste and it won’t hurt you. HOWEVER, if you see white stringy or puffy MOLD, the brine did not take and you’ll need to toss them. I find that Meyer lemons don’t preserve as well as regular lemons for some reason, despite the fact that they are the preferred lemon.