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Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Dehydrating or Drying Citrus

I have dried grapefruit for years but was reading the other day about drying lemons. I squeeze a lemon into my water more often than not to drink it. I like some flavor in my water. I also put lemon in my herb tea sometimes. I like lemon pepper seasoning. I had never tried drying or dehydrating lemon before. I decided to try it and use it in my cooking.


Grapefruits were six for $1 this week so I bought some to dry. I cut the citrus into slices about 1/4 inch thick. If you want to use the peel such as a slice of lemon in tea or wassail, you just lay the lemon peel and all on the dehydration tray. You do need to make sure it is all the way dry as the pulp outside can dry leaving fluid inside.


I thought I would try orange again since we had extra and also mandarin just to see how it tastes dry. I left some of the oranges peels on and some of the lemon slices with peels on. The others, I peeled off the peel after slicing them thin.


I also shaved off some of the peel to have as zest for recipes. Sometimes a recipe will call for lemon or orange zest and I don't have a fresh one around so I shaved some off to dehydrate so I would have some handy next time that happens.


Also, you can use the peels or slices for potpourri. I have a friend whose mom boils her orange and lemon peels in a small amount of water to freshen the house.


One of my best friends likes my dried grapefruit better than any of my other dried fruits. If you have bulk orange or grapefruit, you can dehydrate them for emergency preparedness to have some Vitamin C fruits around. If you ever find yourself without Vitamin C fruits in an emergency situation, grow some wheat sprouts. They are high in Vitamin C. Just thought I would throw that information in.


Anyway, I also thought I could crush the lemon in a coffee grinder and use it in my recipes that call for fresh lemon. I wish I had thought of that sooner. I am looking forward to trying it in some of my favorite recipes and will let you know how they turn out. I have frozen lemon juice in the past to use but that takes freezer space. I think this is a much better idea.


I hope you enjoy them as much as we are.

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