Last month I tried my hand at a method of preserving lemons used in France. Basically, the lemons are in a salt brine. The jar of lemons looks beautiful and the liquid has taken on a yellow hue, and I just loved how they looked on the counter. I had been keeping them in a cool room and I was now ready to try one. I opened up the jar, and to my surprise, the entire surface was covered in a layer of mold, and the topmost lemon was barely poking out of the brine. I was very disappointed that my experiment had not turned out and I was not keen on trying a lemon that had been sitting around in mold!
I couldn't throw them out just yet. I let the jar sit on the kitchen counter for a week or so while I pondered the effects of the mold. First of all, the mold was just on the surface, and many a time I have cut mold off the edge of some cheese before eating it. I have never gotten sick. Mold shouldn't just make you sick. And back in the old days, do you think people were afraid of a little mold? Heck no! The lemons in the rest of the jar looked perfect. I decided to see if I could skim the mold off the surface and throw away that top lemon, and still manage to salvage the rest of the lemons. Well, that is just what I did and guess what! They are GREAT! I have used them 4 times now. I just take one out, cut it into quarters along the slits that I put the salt in, rinse briefly under cold water, and use. It is great on fish, and I even squeezed one in my iced tea, and no, it actually wasn't salty tasting in the least. I had no salt taste, even though you do get a bit of salt when you squeeze the juice and then taste it. I love these lemons. I am definitely going to be preserving more for future use.
