A couple of weeks ago, I posted about an old favorite of mine, preserved lemons. Turns out there were a lot of questions. Okay, there was one question, asked many, many times across all social media. It was, “Can I do it with x?” where x = a citrus fruit that isn’t a lemon. My resounding answer was yes! You totally can! The only issue I’ve found is that they aren’t as versatile as the lemons, which I will put on and in just about anything. I put more salt in with the sweeter fruit (oranges and grapefruits) and into each jar I add the juice of a lemon for greater acidity. When you do your daily shake and smash, give it a sniff. If it smells like some kind of citrus crack you can’t stop sniffing, all is well. If after a few days, it starts smelling slightly alcoholic, like an ambrosial arancello (or whatever the lime and grapefruit versions are called), add another dash of salt and a little squeeze of lemon juice and check back the following day.
So what’s the point of the almost quartering thing? Anyone who has ever made a quick pickle knows that salting helps the produce release its juices. This juice-releasing is really helpful for this process because you need the maximum amount of juice out of your fruit if you’re going to end up with submerged fruit. When you salt and reform the fruit, you get the surfaces all good and salted, which makes for maximum squashing ease.
Feel free to experiment with seasonings or leave them out all together. Remember that anything you add before fermentation will limit the versatility of your final product.
Process after the jump.
For grapefruit:
Select small grapefruits, the thinner the skin, the better, ruby or regular work and you’ll definitely need a widemouthed container. Either use a half gallon jar, or use fewer grapefruits.
Seasoning suggestions: mustard seeds, coriander seeds, whole black peppercorns, lemongrass, ginger or juniper berries
Ingredients
- 5 small grapefruits, plus a couple lemons for their juice
- 6 T canning, sea or kosher salt (or more)
- 2-3 T of your choice (optional)
Process
- As with preserved lemons, cut your grapefruit nearly into quarters, leaving it attached at the bottom
- Sprinkle salt onto the exposed flesh of the grapefruit and push the fruit back so that it looks whole
- Pour 3 T of salt into the bottom of the jar
- Push the grapefruit into the jar, topping each one with a thin layer of salt and seasonings (if desired)
- Once you have all the grapefruit in the jar, push it down with a wooden spoon, releasing as much juice as possible
- When you think you’ve pushed enough, push more.
- When you’ve done that, squeeze enough lemons into your grapefruit jar so that the whole fruits are totally submerged in juice
- Put a lid on them and stick them somewhere away from direct sunlight, but where you won’t forget to give them a shake
- Check back every day or so and shake them, always pushing the fruit back below the surface of the juice
- In about a month, you’ll have your preserved rinds. The pores of fruit will have smoothed out, and the liquid will be cloudy and viscous. The thicker the rind, the longer you’ll want to let it ferment. My preserved grapefruits and oranges took nearly 2 months this year. My limes were done in a month.
Sharonne says
Hi Amanda,
Just getting started in fermenting. I have only 1qt wide mouth ball mason jars. I had a bunch of limes and used the 5T sea salt that is fine ground version of your grapefruit recipe. I hope that was the right thing to do with the limes. Some of the directions are vague and a little nervous.
cjm says
This is great, thanks a lot.
pete says
OK… I’m new to all this…….
after I preserved my limes, what do I do with them……
sam says
Hi there, I haven’t read others comments but wanted to let you know a way to speed things up, especially when the rind is thick. Put the fruit in the freezer overnight first, this breaks open the cells and speeds things up amazingly. Cheers for advice I am about to go and salt some oranges and so a second batch with spices too.
Amanda says
Hi Sam,
That’s interesting! I would be concerned about limiting microbial diversity, as some strains of LAB don’t stand up to freezing, but if it has worked for you, that’s great!
Sam says
Hi again,
I add some of the fermentation liquid from a previous batch as I always have them bubbling away; we are both addicted. We are just playing with our first batch of oranges and I am about to add flavours tonight, I’m going to divide the mix into 3 lots, one just salted oranges, one according to your seasonings above and one batch a al lime pickle. Cheers for feedback
Carrie says
Hi there.
If the point is to speed things up, you could freeze all but one of the quartered citruses, and then the next day put the remaining unfrozen, quartered, salted citrus at the bottom of your jar and pack the others on top. That way you’d still be introducing the LAB, and any extra time that it would take for raw/non-frozen citrus would be negated by the time it takes for you to work your way down to the bottom of the jar. Of course, as Sam is lucky enough to have “mother” brine on hand it’s not necessary, but for those of us who are starting from scratch that might be a good compromise!
Can’t wait to try! 🙂
bonny says
what do I do after I ferment them. Peel and throw away the peel ? Will I then just drink the liquid stuff left in jar???? I don’t get it why don’t I just peel the fruit and ferment it by itself?? Please advise. Thanks Bonny
Justice says
The peel is the best part. When they are finished the peel will melt upon contact with heat. Great alone or in salad dressing. Enjoy!
Nancy says
Is the lemon juice in ALL of them simply for convenience? Is there any reason why I can’t just use more of that fruits juice, (example: Grapefruit juice for grapefruit, etc.)
Amanda says
Hi Nancy,
No, lemon juice is the only thing that will give you the desired result. The other juices are too sweet and will cause a confusing fermentation (it will veer towards yeast fermentation aka wine, but the salt will be there to inhibit that, so it’s just gonna be a mess). Definitely stick with lemon!
Macci says
Hi,
Thanks for the recipe. My limes have been submerged in brine for a few months now. They smell good but there are gelatinous pieces insidethe rind. Is that ok?
Amanda says
Hi Macci,
I’m not totally sure. If you mean that things have thickened up a bit and the fleshy part is gelatinous, that’s totally something I’ve encountered before and it’s fine!
Chef Dante says
has anyone here tried this with sous vide techniques?
Amanda says
Hey! One of the tricks with fermented pickling (although, to be fair, preserved citrus is a different type of fermentation than the lactic acid bacterial fermentation used to pickle vegetables) is that it takes time. You might be able achieve a similar-textured end product through sous-vide, but it would be chemically different. Interesting idea, though, if you take fermentation out of the equation.
Ronald Stowe says
I took the long way home. I salted a number of Meyer lemons without cutting them apart in a gallon glass container. After they had shrunk about 3 weeks I made a heavy canning syrup and immersed the lemons in 1/2 gallon mason jars and refrigerated them for several months. The last step of the journey was to transfer the still whole lemons into quart jars with white vinegar, jalapeños, water and pickling spices. I used a Chefs Steps Sous Vide to pasteurize the quarts. The brine is a mix of 50/50 water and vinegar. They are excellent for crab salad and macaroni salad when chopped fine