A preservative worth its salt

Salting is one of the oldest methods of preserving food. It’s also convenient for the home cook as no specialist equipment is needed. Common salt is quite good enough to use as a preservative – the other commonly used is saltpetre (sodium nitrate plus potassium nitrate). 

Salting includes both dry salting, where the food is covered in salt, and brining, where the salt is dissolved in (most often) water and poured over the food. 

The way salting works as a preservative is by osmosis. You will remember osmosis from chemistry lessons at school – water will move through a semi-permeable membrane from a weak solution to a strong one. In their natural state, plants (ie, foodstuffs) contain salts and minerals in weak solution, in which bacteria live happily. The salt draws moisture from the foodstuff, drying it out slightly, and inhibiting the bacteria from reproducing.

Additonally, salting halts the action of enzymes which can contribute to the decay of foodstuffs. When you put sliced apple into brine or an acid solution like lemon juice to stop it from browning, this is using the brine or acid to stop enzyme activity. 

Foods that are commonly salted include fish: salt cod is practically national dish in some countries; cabbage, in the form of sauerkraut, and also the Korean dish kim chee; beef – Jewish salt beef, for example; and vegetables – think of the many tinned vegetables you buy that are preserved in salt.

Then there are the popular middle Eastern preserved lemons, which are simply salted lemons, and which you can easily make yourself. These are made best with small lemons which you can sometimes find in middle-Eastern stores; if not, you can use ‘normal’ sized lemons, or try preserving limes, or even satsumas instead, using the same method detailed here (updated from our post on citrus gifts, December 18^th, 2012.

Preserved lemons 

6 lemons 

Sea salt 

Give five of the lemons a quick wash and dry. Slice each lemon into four wedges but don’t cut right through the lemon – leave the wedges attached at the stem end. Rub the sea salt into the wedges and pack into a wide-necked, preferably sterilised, 1-litre jar. 

Put the kettle on. 

Sprinkle a tablespoon of salt over the lemons in the jar, then juice the last lemon and add this to the jar. Top up with boiling water, then seal the jar. Leave for a month before using. 

Unopened, these keep really well in a cool dark place. After opening, keep in the fridge.

Citrus crafts and gifts for Christmas

Still not got round to finishing (or even starting) your Christmas shopping? We have some quick and easy gift ideas for you, using citrus fruits. This month's Secret Garden Club meeting looked at growing and making use of citrus, including some great ideas for some home-made gifts.

Usually we like to look at how best to cook and eat our produce, but on Sunday, the Secret Garden Club looked at more ornamental and decorative ways of using lemons and oranges. Guests concocted a jar of refreshing lemon bath salts and made a spiced orange pomander, as well as learning how to make Moroccan style preserved lemons.

Lemon bath salts

2 tbsps Epsom salts – available from the chemist

½ tbsp fine sea salt

Zest of two lemons

A clean, airtight jar.

These amounts can be scaled up or down to suit the size of jar and the number of lemons you have. You can also add more lemon zest to make the lemon fragrance even more intense.

Mix all ingredients well. A whisk is a good way to get all the zest incorporated without clumping. Store in an airtight jar and sprinkle as much as liked in your bath for an aromatic, revitalising soak.

Spiced orange pomander

As long ago as mediaeval times people would hang perfumed pomanders up in rooms, or carry them around with them to disguise bad smells – of which there were many in the olden days.

We may not have foul-smelling rooms or bodies these days, but a spiced pomander will still fill a room, or cupboard, with fragrance and will last for years. This combination of orange and spices gives these pomanders a distinctly Christmassy aroma, ideal as gifts at this time of year. 

1 orange

A toothpick (optional)

1 cup cloves

Masking tape

Ribbon

Spice mix:

1tbs ground cinnamon

1tbs gound nutmeg

1tbs ground ginger (dry ginger)

1tbs ground coriander

1 tsp sandalwood powder

Orris root powder is more traditionally used as a preservative and fixative, but quite a few people turn out to be allergic to it, so we used sandalwood powder at the Secret Garden Clubas it’s less likely to cause upset.

Mix the spices together and pile into a paper bag.

Mark out the orange into quarters with the masking tape. (This makes it easier to fix the ribbon later. For less artistic types, like me, it also helps to keep the patterning neat.) If the orange peel is at all hard, make a hole in the orange first with the toothpick, then push a clove into the hole just made. You should cover the whole orange apart from the masking tape – you can choose patterns or arrange the cloves in rows. Don’t pack the cloves together too tightly as the orange will shrink slightly as it dries out. Put the orange in the paper bag with the spices and toss it so that the gaps between the cloves are well covered with spice mix.

Keep the oranges in their paper bag and put somewhere warm and dry – the airing cupboard is ideal. Turn the orange every day or so.  When the orange is hard to the touch, it’s ready - in a week or so. Carefully remove the masking tape and tie a ribbon around the orange so you can hang it up.

Preserved lemons

This is an essential condiment in middle eastern recipes, livening up casseroles, tagines or rice. Although the only two ingredients are salt and lemons, the flavour is surprisingly soft and mellow. It's so simple to make that I feel it hardly counts as a recipe - here's what to do.

6 unwaxed lemons, washed and dried (to fill a 500ml jar)

Sea salt

Making preserved lemons, clockwise from top left: slice five of your lemons into four wedges but don’t cut right through the lemon – leave the wedges attached at the stem end; next, rub the sea salt into the wedges (shown cut all the way through here); bottom right, pack the cut lemons into a wide-necked jar, and sprinkle with a tablespoonful of salt. Juice your last remaining lemon, add the juice to the jar, and top up with boiling water until full; Finally, seal the jar and leave for at least a month before using.

These keep really well and shouldn’t even need refrigerating – to be sure they’re not in danger of spoiling, use a sterilised jar. I’m told that sometimes a white lacy curd develops on the surface of the liquor, which is harmless. I’ve never seen this – perhaps I eat my preserved lemons before any such layer can develop.

Making spiced orange pomanders at the Secret Garden Club.