How to Preserve Lemon Juice & Peels
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Do you have some extra lemons or did you find a great deal on lemons so you stocked up and now you aren’t sure how to use them all before they go bad? Here’s how to preserve lemon juice and lemon peels to enjoy the lemons as long as possible!
How to Preserve Lemon Juice & Peels
I recently acquired a large bag of lemons and I knew that I was going to need to preserve them or they would end up just like the last large bag….going bad before I could use them all in the bottom of my fridge drawer.
We love using lemon juice in all kinds of recipes and I also love using lemon peel/zest but sometimes just buying a few lemons at the grocery store can get expensive. I love to find a deal on them in bulk!
This time, I decided to document just how to preserve lemon juice (or at least how I do it!) and how to also store the peels so that you can enjoy lemon flavor any time of year!
Here are the tools I use to do this job:
- Lemon Squeezer (I really like this one because it’s made of enamel-coated metal.)
- Rada Vegetable Peeler
- Rada Paring Knife
- Preserve Cutting Board
- Food Dehydrator
- Glass Jars
- Ice Cube Trays
Prep your area and have your tools ready. I did this outside because it’s a fairly messy and sticky job.
Start by washing all your lemons well with a good produce wash. If you are concerned about using the peels, you can always use organic lemons.
You will want to peel your lemons before you juice them because it will make your life easier! Be sure and peel gently so as to not get the pith (white stuff) in the peels. Pith will make your lemon peels bitter and you don’t want that!
Take all those beautiful lemon peels and place them on a food dehydrator tray. They no longer make my dehydrator but you can use any food dehydrator you like! The lemon peels smell SO good, just like lemon drop candy…remember that stuff??
Ok, once that is done we can move on to the lemon juice! For this you need to use the knife and cut the lemon in half, then use your juicer and juice the lemons right into a jar or another container that will be easy to pour from. If you have a good juicer, it will strain the seeds.
Look at all that beautiful lemon juice! Once the jar is full, you can pour it into your ice cube trays.
So I really hate these cheap plastic trays, but I could not find my Silicone Ice Cube Trays when I needed to juice up these lemons so I had to go with the cheapy ones. They will work, they just aren’t my favorite!
Back to the DIY! Pour the lemon juice into the trays and place them in the freezer. Once the cubes are frozen, pop them out of the trays and store them in a freezer bag until you need some.
1 Lemon Cube = 2 Tablespoons Lemon Juice
As for the lemon peels, dehydrate them (I do mine at 160 degrees F for 6 hours) until they are totally and completely dry. Any moisture will lead to spoilage when you store them.
Once they are dry, store the peels in a glass jar with an air tight lid. I crumble these up in recipes and use in the place of lemon zest.
I hope this simple tutorial shows you how to preserve lemon juice and how easy it can be to save the juice and the peels for later. Plus you have it all ready to go…no having to juice the lemons when you need them for a recipe!
You might already know, but I really like to preserve things in ice cube trays! Here are some other things I make:
Do you preserve lemons? What do you do with them?
Nice tips!!! Thanks sooo much!
You’re welcome!
I never thought to freeze lemon juice into cubes. Cool idea. Very cool idea on drying the lemon peels to use as zest later on!!!!
Hi Merissa,
One can freeze whole, halved, sliced or quartered lemons, limes and oranges . If your goal is to zest as well, put the zest in a small jar and freeze . If your going to slice or quarter, freeze on a sheet pan for about an hour, then bag and freeze . 😊
Can I just place the lemon peals on a baking sheet in the oven at 140 for a few hours? I do not have a dehydrator.
Thank you!
Laurie:)
Yes, as long as they are carefully watched. You could sun dry them too 🙂
I can go down further than that with my oven. If you can, then aim for 70 if you can.
I freeze lemons and limes whole in freezer bag. When I get ready to use one I take it out and zest while it is still frozen if I want the zest then toss the whole fruit into the microwave for 30-60 seconds then juice just like you did your fresh ones. Tastes just like a fresh one
Thank you for the great tips! I especially appreciate the tip on freezing broths in ice cube trays! That’s a game changer as I almost always dump out unused broths. 👍🏻
Could you also zest the lemon and dehydrate the zest for later use? I have fruit leather trays for my dehydrator, I just don’t know how well that combination will work.
You could grate he zest if you wanted to but would have to put it on parchment paper or something to keep it from falling through the cracks in the dehydrator.
I zest the lemons and put the zest in snaplock bags in the freezes.
Hi Melissa, thank you for all you right I get a lot out out of it. The question I have is do you have a recipe for homemade lemonade I would really appreciate it. Thank you so much! I hope you have a blessed day
Yes I do! You can find it here: Homemade Lemonade Recipe (And Pioneer Lemonade)
We are fortunate to live where we can grow citrus in our back yard. I’ve been peeling, juicing, and freezing as you described for years. I take it one step further and after dehydrating the zest I pulse it down in my blender. I think a good processor would work to produce a granular zest. I use my vitamix dry container and get a coarse powder. I give jars of lemon and orange zest as gifts for the holidays.
lemon powder mixed with black pepper is good
Thank you for sharing this. I too live in an area (Western Australia)with a Mediterranean climate and abundant lemons, limes, bitter and sweet oranges and little quandongs. I use lemons every day fresh but keep some juice in the freezer as you describe for the approx two months I don’t have them fresh from the garden. Another use for lemons and limes, if you have plenty, is to slice in to saucers you don’t use for eating and cover with cooking salt. Leave these in bathrooms, bedrooms, hall ways anywhere for 24hours to freshen the air . It seems the combination draws all old, stale energy to it, leaving everything fresh and , well zingy!
I take my lemon peels and put them in alcohol and use it as an extract. Mine has been “seeping” since February.
Thank you so much for the tip
Love these ideas! Thanks for sharing!
I greatly appreciate these different methods of storing lemon juice and zest .I shall definitely start storing mine too Thank you
Hello Merissa and hello to all your guests,
My favourite food is citrus of any kind. Lemon peels fresh thrown into the back of your pantry cupboard will keep the insects away. Orange peel does too. Thanks for all the ideas, some I use already but its very nice to get a few new ideas to try out. Thank you. Sadly Australia is not in season for citrus at the moment, but can’t wait to try out your ideas that are new to me when the trees are full again.
Kind regards from Janine
Love your ideas, and will definitely be using alot of them.
I dehydrate the peels, then grind then with a hand crank wheat grinder and make powder.
This is an awesome idea. Thank you so much!
I will give it a try and probably let you know how it turned out.
Some very handy tips from the comments. Plus your handy video.