Waste nothing: How I use the whole lemon

You already know how I use the whole orange (whole orange muffins, citrus-spice infused vinegar cleaners, candied orange peel). I also try to use the entire lemon when I buy fresh lemons.

When buying whole lemons in the supermarket, most of us view the juice and zest as the valuable portions, regarding the shells as something for the compost heap. But the shells can be useful, too, for adding a citrusy accent when cooking poultry.

To use whole lemons,

first, I zest the lemon (I zest lemons the same way that I zest oranges), saving some as bits, and some as threads, in the freezer.

Next, I halve the lemon and juice it. If I don't need the lemon juice right away (if I only needed the zest of the lemon for the recipe that I'm working on). I freeze this juice in small containers, labeling the quantity of juice.

Finally, I freeze the juiced  and zested shells in a large plastic bag, to use as part of the flavoring and aromatics in poultry.



To use:

ZEST -- the zest "bits" are great for adding to cakes and muffins, while the "threads" make a beautiful finishing touch on baked goods, or servings of chicken or fish.

JUICE -- The juice, if frozen in various small quantities, can be pulled out of the freezer, in the exact amounts that I need for recipes.

SHELLS -- I take several lemon shells out of the freezer, and use them:

• cut into 1/8ths and added to marinade for Mediterranean chicken (add garlic, oregano, salt pepper and lemon shells w/ some juice), OR,
• my favorite method for infusing flavor into whole turkeys -- I slip the shell halves into whole chickens and turkeys, along with garlic, onion quarters, and a bundle of sage, thyme and rosemary, as an aromatic "stuffing", both adding flavor to the poultry, and to the pan juices for sauce or gravy.

Resuscitating my sourdough starter

Another frugal thrill for me this week . . .

Over last weekend, I discovered my sourdough starter shoved to the back of the fridge. It was early November the last time I baked with this starter. That's a long time to leave a sourdough starter uncared for.

Anyway, I lifted the lid and the grey hooch that sits on top of the doughy mass was a bit on the green side. And it smelled more like cheese and less like hooch. This definitely did not look good.

This starter had taken me about 10 days to make, and I wasn't ready to start over from the beginning, without at least trying to resuscitate it. So, I thought I'd risk a cup of flour on it, just to see if I could bring it back to life.

Sure enough, after a day of feedings, the starter was all bubbly. I continued to feed the starter for a few days, just to get it going strong. By Wednesday afternoon, it was ready for mixing a dough.

I make my sourdough bread the old-timer way, with just starter, flour and a small amount of sugar and salt. It takes a good 24 hours from mixing the dough to baking, but it is so worth it.  Traditional sourdough bread has to be the most frugal of all bread to bake at home, as there's not even any yeast added.

Taking a few days to fire up my starter left me with a LOT of starter. So, yesterday I baked 2 loaves, and tomorrow I'll bake another 2. That should just about catch me up. I wish I could have just given some of the starter to you, but that might get a little messy in the mail.  -- And also could have aroused some odd suspicions with our postal service! :-o


If you are interested in learning more about making your own sourdough starter, you can find more information in a series of posts beginning here.