Preserved Lemons Are a Magical Ingredient That Can Elevate Your Cooking—These Are Our Favorite Ways to Use Them (2024)

Keeping a jar of preserved lemons in your pantry is like owning a valid culinary passport. Crack the lid, scoop out a segment, and get ready to travel. These intensely flavored, tender, and syrupy citrus fruits steer a dish magically to North Africa and the Middle East. Learn how they are made and how to use preserved lemons in traditional and not-so-traditional ways—because who doesn't love lemons?

What Are Preserved Lemons?

When we refer to preserved lemons, we generally mean the tart citrus packed in granular salt, an ingredient most often associated with North Africa, and specifically Morocco, where lemons have been cultivated since around 100 C.E. One of the most ancient ways of preserving perishable food is to salt it. Why? Salt keeps food-spoiling microbes at bay, and in a hot climate where fresh food deteriorates fast, salting (or drying) comes to the rescue—good for both storing and transporting. The sea happens to be a great source of salt, so if you combine lemon-producing regions with a coastline, you're bound to end up with preserved lemons.

Other Takes on Preserved Lemons

Different countries and cultures have varying savory methods of putting up lemons. Lemon pickle in India is often made with salty brine and flavored with a host of different spices, depending on the region. In Japan, the super-fragrance of lemon-relative yuzu is preserved in yubeshi, where the fruit is stuffed with salty miso and nuts before drying. Both are technically preserved lemons.

How They Are Made

The straight-up, salted lemons so closely associated with North Africa are made with whole, split, or quartered ripe fruit. If cut, the stem end is kept intact, but the seeds are expressed and removed because they can make the preserve bitter. The lemons are packed into jars, and salt is added. Some methods call for additional lemon juice, while others do not.The salt gradually draws out the juices in the lemons over a period of weeks to a couple of months when the lemons are ready.

Preserved lemons are sold in some grocery stores and online, but it's easy to make your own. The main ingredient is time to allow the salt to work its magic. Which brings us to this fascinating question: Are preserved lemons fermented? The answer is yes! The microbes at work during lactic acid fermentation are responsible for the transformation of the lemons' flavor from sharp freshness to a complex and mellow tartness while tenderizing the skin and pith until they are buttery soft.

Speeding Up the Process

If you don't want to wait weeks for preserved lemons to mature, you can cheat with our overnight recipe for quick preserved lemons.

The Lemons

You can use any lemons to make preserved lemons. When we make preserved lemons, we use Eureka lemons, the lemons sold in every grocery store. And, when they are in season, we bottle preserved Meyer lemons to make the most of their juiciness and extra-scented, thin skins.

How to Use Preserved Lemons

Preserved lemons lend authenticity and a sense of place to specific dishes from Morocco (like chicken tagine), Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt, as well as diaspora-inspired influences around the eastern Mediterranean. That’s not the only way to use them; simply adding them to the tomatoey base of a hearty fish soup transports it from the European side of the Mediterranean to the African shore in a flash.

Preserved lemons are a versatile ingredient that can be used in myriad untraditional and creative ways in everything from drinks to soups to sides to pasta:

• Sip a refreshing preserved lemon spritzer where the assertive peel is muddled with sugar and topped with seltzer (or substitute your favorite tonic).
• Use preserved lemons to add body and edge to a rustic pumpkin soup with pimenton.
• Chop and toss preserved lemon into a bowl of just-roasted root vegetables for a quick pick-me-up.
• Marinate halloumi with preserved lemons and olives before grilling the hearty cheese.
• Drizzle a spoonful of preserved lemon brine onto thick yogurt for a compelling dip.
• The brine and yogurt combination also makes a superbtopping for hot, baked potatoes.
• Try pasta with preserved lemons and anchovies for a simple, soul-satisfying supper.
• Use salted lemons in two different ways in these roasted potatoes with preserved lemon, garlic, and chiles.
• Complement a roast leg of lamb with herbs and preserved lemons.

Practical Tips

• Both the flesh and rind of preserved lemons are edible.
• Preserved lemons that are cut before they’re preserved will absorb more salt than those that are packed whole.
• Some recipes call for discarding the super-salty flesh and using only the rind or for rinsing the preserved lemon before cooking with it. These measures can help you control the seasoning of your dish.