Recycling Citrus Peels

10 years ago

I'll share a few ways I am using the peels from my citrus (lemons in my case) and hopefully learn new ways some of you are using this oft discarded part of the fruits from our labors.

I spent some time last year trying to capture the essence of the peel from my Ponderosa lemons. If you read about the Ponderosa, it's actually a "citron". It has a really thick peel and the oils from it have a wonderful aroma. After juicing 20 or 30 of them, my kitchen and my hands smelled fantasitic! I thin-sliced the zest off a bunch of lemons before juicing and packed it into a quart jar with vodka. After a month or two the vodka had a nice lemon yellow color and a nice aroma but alas, I don't like alcohol.

I also put some of the thinly sliced zest in a quart jar of raw honey. I was afraid the moisture from the zest might ferment the honey but it didn't. It gave the honey a very nice hint of lemon and was good on toast.

There are some recipes out there for candied lemon peel. There are some differing opinions on whether to leave the white pith inside the peel. I think it probably depends on your variety. There is a good candied meyer lemon peel recipe out there and they recommend removing the white pith. The ponderosa recipe I used advised leaving the white pith. It turned out very tasty and it stores well in the freezer or in the fridge.

When all else fails, use the peels in your compost. Some say some compounds in citrus peels hurt compost, other say it's a myth. I noticed increased growth from my blueberry plants after discarding lemon peels around them.

Here is a recipe that has 1/3 cup of lemon zest...more zest than any other recipe I have found. I have tried the recipe and it's VERY good....like a very lemony pound cake.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/lemon-cake-recipe/index.html

How are you using the peels from your citrus? We can do a web search so try to share ways you have personal experience with.

Comments (15)

poncirusguy6b452xx
10 years ago
" I thin-sliced the zest off a bunch of lemons before juicing and packed it into a quart jar with vodka"

NOW THATS A CITRUS'ER WITH CHARACTER
krismast
10 years ago
Your ponderosa lemons in alcohol probably made an amazing Ponderosa Lemon extract. Use it in baking! You pretty much used the same method of making vanilla extract, but instead of vanilla beans you used lemon peels. I bet it would taste great in baked goods!

Kris
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elliosc
10 years ago
What about just buryingo the peels around the trees they came from to work as fertilizer? I suppose that's how it would work in nature. Then you won't have to fertilize as much.

Although the edible ideas above also sound great!
johnmerr
10 years ago
I think trying to use the peels for "fertilizer" would invite critters and fungi that you would not want to have there. In "nature" the fruit falls and is usually carried away by something; in modern horticulture it is very important to maintain the orchard floor clean of dead fruit and dead leaves.
rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
10 years ago
Limoncello is one of the best uses of lemon peel that I know of. :-) just make sure that the lemons are organic. You can scrub some of the pesticides off, but not the systemics.
poncirusguy6b452xx
10 years ago
If I remember right,some of you have a calamondin tree that you used for lemon substitute, Can they be used to make Limoncello. If so. I can get those grafted here in cincinnati if my wife ok's it

Steve
poncirusguy6b452xx
10 years ago
If I remember right,some of you have a calamondin tree that you used for lemon substitute, Can they be used to make Limoncello. If so. I can get those grafted here in cincinnati if my wife ok's it

Steve
yukkuri_kame
10 years ago
I'll leave citrus peels by the kitchen sink and use them to wipe oily pans with. Animal fats will be tough, but vegetable oils will clean right up with citrus peels, and then the peels go in the compost.

Put citrus peels in a jar with white vinegar for a few weeks and then strain for a citrus-scented non-toxic cleaner.

The white pith is about 30% pectin, which is, of course, useful for making jellies and such, but also very useful as nutritional medicine. Pectin is soluble fiber and will balance LDL:HDL cholesterol ratio, better than oatmeal. Pectin also draws out heavy metals, particularly cesium from the body, a lot of research done around Chernobyl with pectin.

If I'm making fruit/veggie smoothies and using citrus, I cut away the colored zest and then throw the rest of the fruit with the white pith into the blender.
elliosc
10 years ago
My experience has always been that little critters eat just a tiny part of a citrus fruit, leaving the rest to rot in place.

In any case, I had not thought about disease, so thanks for the comments. I was actually burying the fruit rather than leaving them where they fell, but it sounds like I need to stop doing that!
johnorange
Original Author
10 years ago
Sorry not to have participated more after beginning the thread but looks like lots of peel afficianados have visited in my absence. I spent part of my long weekend rearranging trees in my yard. The calamondin was planted too deep so I moved it and replaced it with a blueberry that was planted in soil with relict oyster shell fragments. I potted up a bunch of lemon sprouts that came up around the blueberry where I deposited what was left of my lemon peels. I tend to agree there should be benefits from putting the peels from a tree back under the tree, perhaps burrying them near the drip line would help reduce concerns about mold and such. I personally don't think undamaged fruit in the tree is likely to be harmed by the bugs and mold that help break down the rinds but there are so many variables for how folks grow citrus and their preferences for organic and how tolerant your neighbors are of fermenting peels next door. Johnmerr, I worked in a peach orchard one summer and we also tried to keep the ground clear of fermenting fruit. If a peach was so ripe it squished in your hands, we had to eat it rather than throw it on the ground :>) I suspect having an orchard is similar in disease control to operating a feed lot. A person with one tree or one cow can get away with some things a person with hundreds of trees or cows just can't do.

Kris, I guess I need to find ways to use the lemon vodka in cooking where the juice wouldn't work as well. I wonder if I could burn in a lamp as an air freshner.

Interesting to learn the peel has pectin. I thought it was the seeds. I tried making jelly by cooking down my fruit along with a huge wad of lemon seeds left from juicing but something wasn't right....it didn't jell. Ponderosas have an amazing number of seeds so I hoped this would work.
johnorange
Original Author
10 years ago
Here is a photo of the lemon vodka next to a specimen from this year's lemon crop.
johnorange
Original Author
10 years ago
I recently made a batch of candied lemon peel (recipes available with a search) but I added a sliced up ginger root while boiling and steeping the peels with sugar. It was fabulous! The candied peel is good for eating alone and it's good on salads. I haven't tried it in cakes or cookies yet but I think it would be great.
apg4
10 years ago
Steve wrote:

>If I remember right,some of you have a calamondin tree that
>you used for lemon substitute, Can they be used to make
>Limoncello. If so. I can get those grafted here in cincinnati if
>my wife ok's it

I've had a calamondin for 45 years and had a bumper crop this year. I've made limoncello many times, but had enough calamondins to make orancello. These peel easily, so the fruit was used to make marmalade: both were given as Christmas gifts. Whatever you use, you only want the zest or clorored part of the peels. No pith....

Limoncello is made by every mon'n'pop trattatoria along the Amalfi coast, where they use grappa as the extractive 'solvent'. Vodka doesn't work well. You need grain alcohol - 95% ethanol - to fully extract the volatile oils.

I harvested 5 1/4 pounds of fruit and used 4.5 liters of EverClear. Let the peels macerate/steep for a month, though more is better. (When done, they should come out like wood chips out of a planer.) The supernatant liquid should be water-clear, but it will be intense radioactive-orange in color, reminiscent of 'Fiesta' dinnerware from the '30s and '40s that used uranium in the colorful glaze. (Yeah, uranium...in dinnerware....)

Limoncello and orancello tastes best at about 30% alcohol. Strain the solution and dilute with a simple syrup (2 parts water, 1 part sugar), remembering the 95% starting point in your computations. It will become slightly cloudy, as the volatile oils come out of solution and go into suspension.

Serve it up straight out of the freezer: ice cold. Summertime in a glass. Everybody who has tried it - including several bartenders - pronounced it excellent. Market potential....

So, if you have citrus, time to try some "cello"....

Cheers
Citrus_canuck
10 years ago
I take all my citrus peels and put in a jug of vinegar. Its my go to cleaner. BEST STUFF EVER! and good for you... unlike a lot of cleaners.
PRO
NA
last year
Please, tell me what you clean with the lemon and vinegar mixture ie. furniture, stovetops, what?

Recycling Citrus Peels

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