Ripe limes are tasty, however you might have an abundance and might’t use them unexpectedly. For these events, preserving limes is rather a lot like preserving lemons. Think about making a jar of those limes to have readily available.

You may protect ripe limes and use them in quite a lot of methods, corresponding to in soups, simmer sauces, vinaigrettes and marinades. However much more generally used, it’s the preserved lime rinds which are put to work, not the juice or pulp.

How one can Protect Ripe Limes

Yield: 1 quart jar

Substances

• 8 to 10 recent natural limes
• 3 to 4 tablespoons coarse kosher salt, extra as wanted

Preparation

Scrub limes clear. Until you might be sure that the limes you might be utilizing are freed from food-grade wax, it’s price taking the extra step to take away any wax that could be current on the fruit. To take action, put the limes in a colander within the sink and punctiliously pour boiling water over them.

Trim off the ends of the limes, and lower them into quarters lengthwise.

Generously sprinkle salt within the backside of a clear quart jar and pack in a single layer of sliced limes. Repeat the salting and layering methodology till the jar is full. Push down on, and gently smash the limes as you fill the jar in order that a few of the juice releases and there’s no area between the slices, leaving 1½ inches of headspace from the ultimate layer of limes and the rim of the jar.

Sprinkle one last layer of salt during the last layer of limes. Via this course of, sufficient juice must be current to submerge the wedges. If not, juice one other lime and pour the juice over the jarred slices till they’re utterly submerged.

If in case you have a small fermentation jar weight, add it to the jar to maintain the limes utterly submerged below the brine.

Wipe the jar rim clear with a dampened paper towel or clear lint-free towel and add the canning jar lid and tighten on the ring.

Retailer the preserved lemons at room temperature, ideally between 60 to 75 levels Fahrenheit, and preserve out of direct daylight. The limes will preserve preserved in the event that they’re saved below the juice-salt brine.

How one can Take pleasure in Preserved Limes

The preserved limes can have a potent citrus taste however be saltier. You may determine to rinse the limes off earlier than utilizing or use them as-is, relying on what it’s you’re utilizing them for. For instance, for those who’re making a marinade, you would actually depart the salty lime as they’re. However in case you are stirring the rind right into a salad or rice, I’d suggest rinsing the lime off, eradicating the pulp and solely chopping up the rind portion of the lime. It’s completely as much as you!

Preserving Ripe Limes -Notes

To change the flavour of the preserved limes, think about including one to 2 teaspoons of dried sizzling pepper flakes inside the layers, or a pinch of complete black peppercorns. Shove a few complete bay leaves inside the sides of the jar or whereas layering limes and salt or incorporate a pair teaspoons of coriander.

Should you shouldn’t have a glass jar weight, you may improvise through the use of an simply detachable small food-grade glass dish that matches contained in the jar to maintain the layers submerged below the brine.

You could substitute advantageous sea salt as an alternative of coarse kosher salt for those who desire. The measurement will stay the identical.

This recipe has been tailored from WECK Residence Preserving (2020) with permission from Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

This text about preserving ripe limes was written for Passion Farms journal. Click on right here to subscribe.