Help with Preserved Lemons - Prof Lipton ? Stuart ?

Help ! I've had a strange chemical reaction with my preserved lemons ! I made a batch last week, made with just lemons and limes, rock salt and sea salt (I had half bags of each) and lemon juice. Washed and scrubbed lemons and limes, cut them up, stuffed them with salt, put more salt at the bottom of the jar, stuffed the lemons and limes in and then topped the whole lot with more lemon juice (straight, no water). Today the lids are all buckled and ready to explode. We've got the lids off, but there seems to have been some reaction between the salt and the lemon juice, and it's still continuing to produce gas, bubbling up from the bottom of the jar. What do I do ? Do I hurl the whole lot, or can they be saved if I move them to a new jar ? There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with the lemons - no mould etc., and it all smells fine.

Help !!!

Thanks, Celia

Hi Celia,
I'm surprised Bill Spencer hasn't jumped in here - he's the lemon guru - or maybe he hasn't seen this thread yet.
Suggest perhaps you email or PM him. Right click for contact info here.




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I wonder if there's an anti-caking or flow agent in one of those salts that is alkaline?

Stuart, YES !! That would make sense. Possibly in the rock salt, but I'll go check the packet of seasalt as well. Thank you.

But if that's the case, does that mean the lemons won't work now ?

What I've done is I've emptied out the lemons, resterilised the jars, then put them back in without the extra rock salt (which was still undissolved). I poured in some of the leftover lemon juice to fill the jars halfway and then topped it with some boiling water. Will wait and see what happens now, unless you tell me that I should probably chuck it all out and start again ?

Celia

If that's the issue, no worries about the lemons.

Cheers, Stuart ! They're actually smelling great, so I'm pretty sure they're fine. I just got carried away a bit with the rock salt and lemon juice, I think.

Thanks !

Celia

My first reaction was to the rock salt. I bet Stuart is right on the mark with the anti-caking agent.

I never cook with that stuff as I find it really harsh. Whenever I do preserved lemons I just use sea salt and I have never had a problem like that.

rwj

Thanks Cowboy. It seems to have settled down now that I've got most of the excess rock salt out.

Celia