Preserved lemon

In Ayurvedic cuisine, lemon pickle is a home remedy for stomach disorders, and its value is said to increase as it matures.

Historically, pickling was an affordable and practical method of preserving lemons for use long after their season and far away from where they are grown.

Early 19th-century English, American, and (in translation) Indian cookbooks give recipes for lemon pickle and mention its use in sauces for salmon, veal, etc.

They should be small, and with thick rinds: rub them with a piece of flannel; then slit them half down in four quarters, but not through to the pulp; fill the slits with salt hard pressed in, set them upright in a pan for four or five days, until the salt melts; turn them thrice a day in their own liquor, until tender; make enough pickle to cover them, of rape-vinegar, the brine of the lemons, Jamaica pepper, and ginger; boil and skim it; when cold, put it to the lemons, with two ounces of mustard-seed, and two cloves of garlic to six lemons.

These changes include a wrinkling of the skin along with a slight browning of the interior portion of the lemon (if sliced), due to oxidation.

Based on the nutritional value, it can also be theorized that protein is broken down or hydrolyzed during the fermentation process as there is an absence of the macronutrient post-fermentation.

Fermentation can be heavily affected by compositional factors within the fruit such as pH, buffer capacity and initial sugar content.

[14] A common macronutrient used in curing is salt, which increases the osmolarity of the liquid to inhibit the growth of certain classes of microorganisms.

This effect creates a difficult environment for those bacteria to survive in and allows the growth of salt-tolerant microbes.