{"id":1853,"date":"2023-01-26T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-01-26T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fermxpert.com\/?p=1853"},"modified":"2023-01-24T19:37:15","modified_gmt":"2023-01-24T18:37:15","slug":"fermented-lemons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fermxpert.com\/en\/fermented-lemons\/","title":{"rendered":"Fermented Lemons"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Traditionally Polish fermented foods are usually the easiest to spot in my kitchen. However, this doesn&#8217;t mean that I never go abroad, even if it&#8217;s just by perusing a cookbook. Morocco was one such journey. And I&#8217;ve brought fermented lemons from it. They&#8217;re a traditional Moroccan food and and ingredient of their tagine dish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"[EN] Fermented Lemons\" width=\"1080\" height=\"608\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/zkOhp7aYhQ0?feature=oembed\"  allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Recipe<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>fresh lemons (preferably unwaxed)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>cloves<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>cinnamon sticks<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>black peppercorns<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>bay leaves<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>salt<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>I intentionally omit the amounts since I alway eyeball the ingredients. The empty jars should be weighed beforehand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cut the ends off the lemons, then quarter the fruit. Add spices to the jars &#8211; a few cloves, a few peppercorns, a bay leaf. Next, pack the lemon wedges tightly and push a cinnamon stick between them. Press the juice of the remaining lemons and pour it over the jarred ingredients so that they&#8217;re completely submerged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Add salt to the jars so that it&#8217;s 2-2.5% of the contents&#8217; mass. To do this, weigh a full jar, subtract the empty jar&#8217;s mass from the result and calculate 2 or 2.5% based on the obtained figure. It&#8217;s unnecessary to stir the salt in; it&#8217;ll dissolve by itself. Close the jars, optionally add a fermentation weight. Ferment at room temperature for a few weeks to a few months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Video Transcription<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>While I happen to live in a country where fermented foods are very common, I often set out to explore the cuisines of other parts of the world. Today it&#8217;s Morocco. I&#8217;m going to prepare some fermented lemons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In front of me I&#8217;ve got a bowl of lemons and a few other ingredients: cloves, black peppercorns, cinnamon, bay leaves and salt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The lemons have been thoroughly washed and scrubbed with a brush to remove as much wax as possible. Organic unwaxed lemons would obviously be the best choice. I&#8217;m cutting the ends off and quartering the fruit. I find that quarters are just the right size for me when I&#8217;m adding them to salads, which is how I primarily use fermented lemons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I grab a jar and start adding the spices. Some cloves go first, then peppercorns and a bay leaf. I then put the lemons in. I try to pack them rather tightly. It&#8217;s OK if they get a bit squeezed. The idea is to keep the cloves and peppercorns from flowing to the surface. A piece of cinnamon goes in between the lemon wedges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When the jars are full, I prepare the brine. Instead of water, I&#8217;ll use freshly squeezed lemon juice. I top the jars with juice as I go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>All the lemons are submerged in juice, but I still haven&#8217;t added salt. In order to do this, I&#8217;ll need a scale. I know how much the empty jars weigh so I can just weigh them when they&#8217;re full. I subtract the empty jar&#8217;s mass from the obtained result and get the mass of the contents. Based on that figure, I calculate the required amount of salt to reach the target salinity. I simply toss the salt in. It&#8217;ll have plenty of time to dissolve all by itself. Finally, I add a fermentation weight and close the jar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here&#8217;s what the lemons look like when I&#8217;m done. They&#8217;ll ferment at room temperature for at least a few weeks. This fermentation is rather slow, possibly due to the lower than normal pH. Lemon juice is rich in organic acids: citric and malic. During the fermentation, lactic acid will also be produced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Two weeks in and this is what I end up with. The flavours will mature over the next weeks or even months, but I&#8217;m too impatient to wait any longer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The fermentation is still active as I can clearly hear squeaking. It&#8217;s the carbon dioxide still being released. The aroma is intense. It&#8217;s lemony, but on steroids: much stronger than that of a fresh lemon. Also, the spices are coming through, especially the cinnamon. The taste is still developing. Salt hasn&#8217;t had enough time to mellow out, but the sour citrusy flavour is very strong. The peel, with a hint of bitterness, doesn&#8217;t taste as good as the flesh on its own, but in a Moroccan tagine, or even chopped in a salad, it&#8217;ll be divine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Traditionally Polish fermented foods are usually the easiest to spot in my kitchen. However, this doesn&#8217;t mean that I never go abroad, even if it&#8217;s just by perusing a cookbook. Morocco was one such journey. And I&#8217;ve brought fermented lemons from it. They&#8217;re a traditional Moroccan food and and ingredient of their tagine dish. Recipe [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1851,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[93],"tags":[119],"class_list":["post-1853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pickled-foods","tag-fruit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fermxpert.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fermxpert.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fermxpert.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fermxpert.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fermxpert.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1853"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fermxpert.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1853\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1855,"href":"https:\/\/fermxpert.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1853\/revisions\/1855"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fermxpert.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fermxpert.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fermxpert.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fermxpert.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}