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Lemon Peel, to Keep for Use
Lemons should be kept in a cool, dry place, and each one should be hung in a separate net, for if they touch one another they will spoil. The rind may be grated, put into jars, and covered with either salt or sugar, according to the nature of the dish for which it is afterwards to be used.
A storecupboard preparation rather than a dish: two ways of holding lemons and their rind before refrigeration. The salt and sugar are the preservatives, so the ratio matters more than the book lets on.
- The hinge: enough salt or sugar to exclude airThe original gives no proportion, and packed zest only keeps if the salt or sugar is in genuine excess rather than a token dusting. Work roughly equal weights of zest and salt, or zest and sugar, and press the mixture down so no dry pockets or damp surface film remain.
- Refrigerate rather than trust a cool larderAn unheated Victorian larder would generally have run cooler than a modern kitchen, and zest kept at room temperature may surface-mould. Keep both jars in the refrigerator and discard at the first sign of fuzz or fermentation smell.
- Grate the yellow only"Rind" here means the coloured zest. The white pith beneath is bitter and holds water, which shortens the keeping life of the jar.
- Hanging in netsThe separate nets keep the fruit apart so that one soft spot cannot spread by contact, and allow air round each. A single layer in an open basket, not touching, does the same job; whole lemons will also keep for several weeks loose in the refrigerator.
- Waxed fruitMost supermarket lemons are coated. Scrub in warm water and dry thoroughly before grating, or buy unwaxed, since the coating concentrates in exactly the layer you are keeping.
- Which jar for which dishSalted zest goes into sauces, stuffings, fish and braises, where you then cut back the salt elsewhere. Sugared zest belongs in cakes, custards and puddings, and can be counted as part of the recipe's sugar.
- YieldTwo large lemons give roughly two tablespoons of packed zest. Substitute for fresh zest by taste, allowing for the salt or sugar it carries with it.
Cassell's treats this as a matter of household economy: it belongs to the running of a kitchen that bought citrus in quantity when it came cheap and had no cold storage. Lemons reached British kitchens from the Mediterranean as a seasonal and comparatively costly item; nothing about one was wasted, and the aromatic oil in the rind was worth capturing separately from the juice. Packing in salt or sugar is the same logic that produced candied peel and North African salt-preserved lemons, both far older than this book: a high enough concentration of either binds the available water and leaves the flavour intact. The instruction to hang each fruit in its own net is a reminder of how much Victorian food management was simply the careful arrangement of air.