I really enjoy lemons.

It’s one of the grief’s of my life that I have never wound up living in a place where citrus can grow outside. That would be just lovely, I think. Imagine how they would smell!

I enjoy lemons most of all the citruses, I think. I am one of those people who can eat them raw, and I do enjoy them in that fashion. I also like large lemon slices fried with lentils or beans, a bit of an add on to a Middle Eastern kind of meal (recipe forthcoming). However, I bring this up because I just chopped some for my dandelion wine (recipe also forthcoming!) And made some candied lemon peel.

Candied peel is very old, coming to us from that crazed fusion of East, west, north and south brought us by the Crusades, and subsequent trade. I believe it dates (and so does Europe’s love affair with dates, ha-ha) back to the twelfth or fourteenth century.The principle behind candied peel is simple: sugar is a dessicant. Dessicants preserve things.

So, we make candied peel thusly:

Ingredients:

Lemons

White sugar

Container

1) Wash your modern organic lemons very well, with a potable soap or vinegar/baking soda frothy wash. This removes the pesticide and waxes.

2) Cut the peel from the fruit, in long, longitudinal strips… Or one long round, if you’re a superstar!3) Get a bowl with a lid. I like to use a little candy dish, for presentation, but also use crock casks or mason jars as well. Layer the sugar about 1.5-2 inches deep in the bottom.

4) Onto this, lay the lemon peel. If you have a single one, wind it so that it leaves about 1 inch between rind evolutions.

5) Scatter with sugar until coated, about an inch or so on top.This part is important (and chemistry in action!)

6) Keep checking back every day or two and add more sugar if the peel becomes visible or the contents liquid.This magic action is the result of the fact that sugar as a dissacharide (2 simple sugars), requires hydrolysis (or the addition of water molecules) to break it apart. Water is added, sugar becomes monosaccharides, and we get preservation of things with water in it!These peels are brilliant in water (automatic sweet lemonade), tea, and of course as a simple snack.

 

Lemon pith and rind is rife with anti-oxidants, and excellent to eat as it is also anti-bacterial, anti-fungal and anti-viral.

I hope you enjoy trying this recipe at home!