Preserved Meyer Lemons Recipe (2024)

Are you citrus obsessed? This time of year is heaven for me. Each market run results in me bringing home truckloads of Meyer lemons, limes, and all sorts of oranges. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to find organic blood oranges this year and it’s seriously depressing.

Usually I eat one almost everyday while they’re in season. Hopefully they’ll be in stock soon so I can get my fix. In the meantime though I’m planning ahead and preserving some gorgeous fragrant Meyer lemons.

One of my favorite snacks is marinated olives and lemon slices from the olive bar. I love the soft tangy rind. It can brighten any salad dressing and is especially good when stirred into some mayonnaise with a roasted garlic clove. Traditionally though preserved lemons are used in Moroccan cooking but the options are endless.

Lucky for us the process couldn’t be simpler!

All you need is lemons and salt. Be sure to use organic lemons since you’ll be eating the rind. Also, please use a good quality salt. No table salt here, you can either use kosher salt or pink Himalayan salt.

Simply slice the tip of the lemon off and quarter it leaving about an inch intact. Sprinkle a heaping teaspoon into the cut lemon and stuff it into a jar. Sprinkle with more salt and repeat stacking the lemons cut side down making sure to mash them to release the juices.

The process is sort of like sauerkraut where you’ll want to shake the jar and mash the lemons down until they’re covered by liquid.

You can see that I didn’t have enough juices when first packed. If your lemons aren’t covered within 24 hours simply squeeze in some more lemon juice or add an extra lemon if you have room. I ended up adding an extra one and a bit more juice.

Keep shaking the jar each day for about a month and then they’re ready to be transferred to the refrigerator and eaten! At that point they’ll keep for about 6 weeks.

TA-DA! Full of liquid and ready to sit. I can’t wait to dig into this batch!