Recently I had a good lemon harvest , and I'm experimenting with it . I like to know if I can make lemon powder , so I can use them later . I tried heating , but it all went black and became unusable , is there a way to remove all the water in lime juice without harming the taste ?
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Is powdered peel a viable alternative?– TheSexyMenhirCommented Apr 25, 2017 at 8:38
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3It's not powder, but there are ways to put them up for later. For example, Morocan preserved lemons (salt cured). I suspect you could can lemon juice, as it's acidic enough, but in recipies for canning lemon curd, they call for bottled lemon juice so they can be more assured of the acidity. (I'd get some litmus paper and powdered citric acid if it needed adjusting, once I knew what acidity level was needed)– JoeCommented Apr 25, 2017 at 11:47
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2Buy booze and make a bunch of limoncello?– CatijaCommented Apr 25, 2017 at 19:02
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2 Answers
The problem is that you likely cannot afford it. It is done by vacuum, so the machine (rotovap) will cost you about 10 000 dollars, or you can find a few Chinese noname suppliers for maybe 6 000.
It is an amazing thing to play with in the kitchen, but it will cover the cost of buying supermarket lemons for several lifetimes.
Any conventional ways of conserving the lemons will result in something entirely different. Certainly not lemon powder which can be rehydrated to something lemon-juice like. But there are other techniques for preserving lemons, which simply create a different end product with different uses. You could ferment them, or make jam, or preserve the peel only, etc. This is the more feasible way to deal with them.
answered Apr 25, 2017 at 10:40
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2You could use a freeze drier (Lyophilizer) instead of Rotovap, Vacuum pump and cold trap shouldn't set you back more than $500. I think either Rotovap or Lyophilizer might fail to give you a powder though, because some of a lemons flavor comes from compounds like limonene: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limonene which are liquids. I've never seen lemon powder, so I best you'll end up with at best a paste if you pull out all the water. Commented Apr 25, 2017 at 23:44
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If we are freezing lemon juice then do we need to add anything to keep the taste as it is for a time? Commented Apr 26, 2017 at 6:59
I have placed fresh squeezed lemon juice in a Harvest Right freeze dryer. It does turn it to a powder. Within a short amount of time it changes to a sticky clump. I have been reading that you add Maltodextrin to it so it will not cake. I am interested in the ratios of this.
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Welcome to Seasoned Advice! We're a Q&A site and not a discussion forum, so if you have another question, please ask it by clicking the Ask Question button and link to this question for reference. Commented Jul 1, 2021 at 6:47