I have an ungodly amount of fucking lemons help

[JustStickItInAJar]

My absolutely Beautiful mother and father in law have come over for a belated Christmas celebration as I had surgery at Christmas and she was on holiday anyway. My father in law is Indian and she is Italian. Somehow on their travels this past year she/ they have acquired a metric fuck ton of Lemons, limes, and lots of other lovely things to make curries and chutneys which is incredible.

She is staying for 2 months which is lovely..

She unloaded their car (drove from Italy) and she’s brought about 25kg of lemons and limes. Probably more. I laughed when she said that I needed to buy some jars.

What the fuck can I do with that many lemons?? She’s going to make us all some beautiful dishes but she also wants to make Leon curd / chilli & lemon pickle but that’s probably 4 jars??

help!!

I think some of or all of the lemons have been frozen because I know she lives in Sorrento but it’s January!!

I live half the year in northern Portugal, we flew to the UK mid January. Our 2 lemon trees were covered in fruit when we left.
You can make preserved lemons, lemon curd, lemon marmalade, freeze them whole, freeze the juice (in ice cube trays for easy use), grated peel etc. You can also cut up into segments, freeze, and use in gin and tonics.
Frozen lemons can really only be used in cooking.

If I had a juicer I would be making enough citron pressé for the rest of the year. And I would probably still run out by June! I love the stuff.

I had a surfeit of lemons end of last year and I made lemon curd. It was easy to make and delish ! Also good presents in a nice jar. I now have another surfeit due to a kind neighbour but I bunged a load in the freezer quick smart. They are from his finca up in the hills and positively juicilicious. And freeze well. Defrost one at a time for juicing into cooking sauces or dressings. Also...lemon drizzle cake 🤭

Oo lemon curd! I’ve not had that in a long time !! Do I have to sterilise jars before they’re used for chutney / syrup/ lemon curd/ etc? Our oven broke so we only have a hob, microwave and air fryer but I also have lots of Milton liquid so I can do a cold water sterilisation?

Lime marmalade. Do you have a slow cooker? Do the first cook in the slow cooker, whizz roughly in the food processor and then final set with sugar on the stove top.

Grate the rind and squeeze the juice. Freeze in 1/2 cup batches for cakes for the next 12 months.

Make lemon sauces and freeze for chicken or fish dishes.

Take some to Mass on Sunday and leave in the foyer. I promise it works.

Lemon curd, lemon marmalade, preserved lemons (yes you should sterilise jars.)
Lemon chicken, lemon rice, curries with lemon, fish with lemon. Lemon instead of vinegar in salad dressings.
Lemon drizzle cake, lemon meringue pie, lemon cheesecake, lemon fudge, lemon fool, sussex pong pudding, crystallised lemon peel.
Slices of lemon in drinks, homemade lemonade. Things like homemade gingerbeer also have lemon.
For household cleaning- I've used it against limescale.

You can freeze seville oranges for marmalade, so I assume you can freeze other citrus, including lemons.

when life (or the in-laws) gives you lemons, make lemonade! i'll get my coat.....
joking aside, i would have an equally metric fuck ton of lemon drizzle cake, i adore it. also from the top of my head, lemon chicken, lemon meringue pie, limoncello (would keep for ages and good for gifts), key lime pie for the limes, lemon juice for seafood and cleaning, lemon marmalade. i'm slightly jealous

Sounds like a good excuse to open the gin. Or some Mexican beer and you can stick some lime in the top.

Lemon meringue pie.

Sticky chicken wings.

Ok I’m feeling a bit less overwhelmed! My username is her response to what I should do with all the lemons and limes and curry leaves and Kashmiri chilli’s and honestly I’ll be here all day if I list all the lovely things she’s brought and intends to cook and freeze for us. My main concern is I’m having chemo again soon so how do I sterilise jars so her absolutely beautiful chutneys and pickles, curries and pasta sauces don’t accidentally kill me? I’m about to start very intensive chemo so she might be here a lot longer (completely depends on how I respond to this round as we have 3 little kids and my husband works long haul flights (cargo) so we need his wages and I might need her to look after our kids and me if this all goes tits up.

please tell me how to clean jars that have had dolmio sauce in as that’s basically what I have and some mason jars. Can I just stick it in Milton cold sterilising liquid or do I need to boil things?

@JustStickItInAJar i'm soooo sorry you are having chemo soon😔my heart breaks for you, i saw a family member going through it a few years ago and it scares me to death, you are much stronger than i could ever be and my heart truly goes out to you. i hope and pray you sail through it as much as possible and have a great outcome, and i'm sending all the strength and healing to you. my inbox is always open to you. i would think boiling water and milton but i've only ever used milton with cold water to whiten cups stained with tea. maybe to err on the side of caution, a sterilising machine would be good if possible.
edit to add this is food grade.

oh shit, link didn't add in edit
here it is. this is food and medical grade.

Sterilise your jars in the microwave

https://www.plenty.com/en/cleaning-tips/3-ways-to-sterilise-jam-jars-for-minimal-mould/#:~:text=Use%20soapy%20water%20to%20make,like%20Plenty)%20to%20dry%20off.

Limoncello

Give most of them away to friends, family, work colleagues or on Olio or similar.

Dealing with them all sounds like a huge job that's going to produce huge amounts of lemon curd, limoncello etc etc that you're going to have to store and use up before it goes off. Do you actually want that?

Sorry OP, (I can’t sleep and I apologise just now for being pass remarkable) I dont have practical advice or any good input for the thread
but
I just wanted to say how your language around your in-laws is lovely, and it makes a really lovely change tonight.

really sorry to hear about your intensive chemo, and sending you as many good vibes as I can

Preserved lemons. You can give some jars away.

honestly my mother in law is like my Mum. She Makes me call her Mama which honestly Healed the child in me. She is absolutely brilliant. I also love my Fil fyi but I really really lucked out with my husbands mum. I hope she lives forever because she is incredible. I cannot relate to people who don’t like their mil at all. If anything when I had our babies she was more interested in making sure I had everything I could possibly need, she came and stayed each time I had our babies and honestly other than making sure baby was latching properly (which I asked her to do- she’s a dr) she just focused on me and I loved her even more.

Holy Vitamin C, Batman! That's a hell of a lot of citrus. I'm guessing you're going to be making marmelade, limoncello, lemon butter/curd, preserved lemons and ensuring that you and your loved ones never, ever get scurvy.

Lemon curd is lovely but be aware that homemade only lasts a couple of weeks in the fridge as it has no preservatives. I usually only make one or two jars max so that is about 6 lemons. You can preserve lemons in salt or pickled or freeze as PP suggested.

You could go full Little Women and make pickled limes! No idea how, but they sound so good in the book.

Definitely limoncello. Also freeze a bag of slices to put in water/gin as needed.

I know it is not the season but ...

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/really-easy-lemonade

You could skip the water and make concentrate, and stick it in your freezer, and add the water later when you want lemonade...

I was going to suggest blending the lemons and freezing them. Can use them for lemonade in the summer, or adding to cooking.
You can buy jars with lids quite cheaply.

It sounds as though she knows what she’s doing, though. Preserved salted lemons are as easy as anything. The issue I have is storing all the jarred goods.

Candied peel- score the lemon through the pith and peel into segments, and peel it so you have end up with a heap of segments and a heap of peeled lemons. Blend and freeze the depipped lemons for lemonade or lemon juice. Bring the peels to the boil, rinse, do it again. Then cover with water, add the same amount of sugar as water, and cook gently until most of the water has gone. The peel can be dried and eaten as candied peel, maybe dipped in dark chocolate, used in cooking, or packed in a jar with its syrup for cooking with later. Delicious.

I think if you’ve got a juicer ( I’ve got a little one by Braun which is excellent) the most straightforward thing would be to juice them and freeze the juice in ice cube trays.

Im a lazy cook and highly recommend making lemon syrup from leftover lemon rinds. After they’ve been juiced ( and zested if you want) chuck a kilo of sugar over a kilo and a half of lemon rinds. Leave overnight and it turns into the most delicious lemon syrup. Strain through a fine strainer or muslin and bottle. It’s great used in baking, poured on pancakes.