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Friday, November 5, 2010

Dehydrating Lemons

I know, lemons?  Really?  What for?  Well, to make lemonade with of course, silly.  You can also add them to other drinks or put them in the pot when you're baking fish.  (Take them on your next fishing trip and toss them in the foil with a little water when you foil bake your fish over the coals.)  Yummy.  Or use them in potpourri or something like that.  It's a good way to preserve your lemons when you've got them so they don't just go soft and nasty in your fridge drawer.

First, wash your lemons really well.  Because we're leaving the skins on we want them good and clean.

Slice them into slices about 1/4 inch thick.  I used a fancy slicer, but a nice sharp knife would also work if you're fairly adept at cutting straight.  Here's how the slicer worked: Cut the end off your lemon.


Get the little handle thingy with the prongs inside and position it over the lemon.


Then push down on the lemon and the prongs will go into the lemon and the pusher handle will come up.


Then, applying pressure to the pusher on the handle, run the lemon through the slicer until it is all sliced.  You can do this over a bowl if you want--I just did it over the cutting board.


Once you have them sliced, get the seeds out--you can probably grab most of them with your fingers, but you might want to use the tip of a knife to pry the stubborn ones out.

When the seeds are out, put the lemon slices on the dehydrator tray and dry at 135 until they're crispy.


That's it.  Store them in a jar or vacuum sealed bag or mylar bag with oxygen absorber--whatever works for you.  The less air they are exposed to, the fresher they'll stay.  Never hurts to have a little lemon flavor available.

1 comment:

  1. Also, used in water for a flavor addition, or as a reconstituted non chemical de greaser/ cleanser

    ReplyDelete