Making salted lemons

I just bought a case of lemons on a really good sale.  Since I had them, I decided to make chahn muoi (Vietnamese salted lemons and the salty lemon drink made from them.)  It was super easy and got me looking around.  I found some fabulous looking Indian pickles to try making as well as Moroccan salted lemons.  Some of the Moroccan dishes fall nicely into SCA period.  There's a tagine with chicken, lemons, apricots, kalamata olives and a honey sauce that sounds delicious.  Even more exciting, I located Lancelot de Casteau's Ouverture de Cuisine.  Published in 1604, the recipes are French.  Several of them use "sour salty lemons."  Over a dozen of them are listed in the preserved lemons files at Stefan's Florilegium.  There's fish sausages, a simple boiled capon, quite a few veal dishes, and some lamb.  A great variety of recipes to try.  I'm going to make some of this style of preserved lemon today, which are just packed in salt rather than in a salted brine like the ones I just made.  I can't wait to start experimenting with them in a month when they are ready to try.

This recipe from al-Baghdahi provided by Cariodoc in the same file from the Florilegium also looks delicious and may have to be my first use of the lemons.

Madira

al-Baghdadi p. 41/ 6

Cut fat meat into middling pieces with the tail; if chickens are

used, quarter them. Put in the saucepan with a little salt, and cover

with water: boil, removing the scum. When almost cooked take large

onions and leeks, peel, cut off the tails, wash in salt and water,

dry and put into the pot. Add dry coriander, cummin, mastic and

cinnamon, ground fine. When cooked and the juices are dried up, so

that only the oil remains, ladle out into a large bowl. Take Persian

milk, put in the saucepan, add salted lemon and fresh mint. Leave to

boil: then take off the fire, stirring. When the boiling has

subsided, put back the meat and herbs. Cover the saucepan, wipe its

sides, and leave to settle over the fire [i.e. at a low heat], then

remove.

Fat meat (lamb) or chicken or both:    2 leeks       4 c yogurt

   3 1/2 lb chicken or 2 1/2 lb boneless lamb     1 t ground coriander

        1/2 lemon

1 T salt      1 t cumin     1 T salt

water to cover-no more than 1 quart    1/8-1/16 t mastic   1/2 c

fresh mint = ~1 oz

4 medium onions     1/2 T cinnamon

Chicken version: Cook chicken about 30 minutes. If you want to serve

it boned (not specified in the recipe, but it makes it easier to cook

and to eat-we have done it both ways), remove it from the water, let

cool enough to handle, bone, and put the meat back in the pot. Add

leeks, onions and spices. Cook away the rest of the water, remove

meat and vegetables, and add yogurt, lemon, salt and mint; mint is

chopped and lemon is quartered and each quarter sliced into two or

three times with a knife. Let come to a simmer and put back the meat

and vegetables. Heat through, not letting it boil, and serve. Use

proportionately less water if you expand the recipe substantially.