I just a couple days ago started a batch of Moroccan preserved lemons, using a combination of recipes from 2 books I own and a few online.
Basically, near-quarter some Meyer lemons and stuff with salt, then squish them in a jar, releasing some juice and covering it with a little extra juice, close and store in a cool place for a month. Every day for the first little bit, shake them to mix the salt in more.
I've read that you really don't want your lemons sticking out of the liquid, because they'll go bad that way, but I'm a couple days in and mine seem to be floating…
Does anyone have experience with this process that would understand where I need to go from here? Did I use too much salt in the liquid? That could cause things to float more easily, but I haven't read anything about it anywhere, and I figure someone else has done this process enough to understand what's up.
Best Answer
While traditional recipes do not (apparently) use weights, other fermentation texts highly recommend submerging the material being fermented ("Fermented Vegetables", Christopher Shockey and Kirsten K. Shockey) and I had also observed possible mold problems when fermenting lemons myself. Therefore, standard advice would be to weigh the lemons down with something acid resistant (glass would be typical) as the high salt content and shape of the lemons makes them prone to rise above the brine.