JOURNEY OF THE PRESERVED LEMONS: Chapter 4 — The Tasting, A Year Later

Just over a year ago, I had the novel idea to buy a bunch of Meyer lemons and preserve them. It seemed like a simple enough process: just cut them all up, rub them all over with salt, and then cram them into a jar with plenty of lemon juice. But given that this is ME we’re talking about, what should have been a rather basic undertaking turned into an adventure fraught with anxiety, paranoia, and general malaise.

You see, all the recipes for preserving lemons had insisted that all the lemons be completely submerged in their own juices. My jar, however, made this physically impossible to achieve (hard to describe, but the lid caused an air bubble). I became convinced that botulism would grow wild and free on my lemons, and after about three and a half weeks of stress over this, I moved the lemons off my counter and into my fridge, where they’ve resided for the past year in a dark and neglected corner. I suppose I was hoping the problem would just go away, and yet I couldn’t bring myself to just chuck the lemons into the trash and start over. After all, that would be such a waste, not to mention a total victory for my neuroses. So I just kept the lemons back there like some bastard stepchild. Over the months, I occasionally would find a chef or a pickling expert and detail my situation, and they all told me I had nothing to worry about, but I still was irrationally scared to open that jar.

Once I hit the one year mark, though, I knew it was time to take action. It was time to face off against my pickled foe. With the help of my friend Lisa Timmons, I revisited the jar and can thus bring you the thrilling conclusion to the Journey of the Preserved Lemons. Photos and video after the jump…

The lemons, ready to be opened.

My general apprehension…

And now… the triumphant video of me trying the preserved lemons:

Ta-da!!

Look forward to some Moroccan-themed Adventures in Domesticity posts coming up soon…