5 from 24 votes
How to Make Black Limes
Making Black Limes involves blanching fresh limes briefly in salted boiling water, then rapidly cooling them in an ice bath to arrest cooking. They are then dried gradually under sun and low oven heat for several days until darkened and hard. The resulting limes develop a concentrated, slightly fermented citrus flavor used in Middle Eastern and Persian cooking, either whole or ground, to add unique acidity and aroma to dishes.
Prep Time
10 mins
Cook Time
1 min
Additional Time
3 d
Total Time
3 d 11 mins
Servings:
10
dried limes
Course:
Condiments
Cuisine:
Middle Eastern, Persian
Ingredients
- 10 lime preferably Persian limes or other thin-skinned seedless cultivars, fresh
- salt sea salt
Instructions
- Add water – enough to cover the limes – to a pot with 1 teaspoon sea salt per 1 litre of water. Bring the salted water to a rolling boil without the limes.
- While the water is heating up, get your ice bath ready by placing at least 10 blocks of ice and cool water in a container with enough space to hold the limes.
- Once the salted water in the pot reaches a boil, add the limes for 60 to 90 seconds.
- Remove the blanched limes with a slotted spoon and drop them into the ice bath to stop the cooking process. Leave the limes in the ice water until cool. Once ready, remove the limes and dry with a clean tea towel. Give shop-bought limes a good rub in case they still have some wax residue on them.
- To dry the limes, you can place them in direct sun during summer when it's properly hot outside. Alternatively, place the limes directly on your oven bars with the oven set to a low temperature, I use 70 °C (158 °F) in a non-fan oven. Use any temperature between 65 °C and 95 °C (150 °F - 200 °F) and dry until the limes are dark brown and hollow, or continue until almost black. It takes between 2 and 5 days depending on the method used.
- Once dried, store whole limes in an airtight container at room temperature. It will keep for several months. Or for ground black lime powder, bash the limes into a few pieces with a skillet. Remove any seeds and grind into a powder using a spice grinder, blender or mortar and pestle. Store it in a sealed container and sprinkle on everything!
Cup of Yum
Notes
- Use a mix of sun and low-temp oven drying, turning off the oven when unsupervised for safety.
- Rotate the limes during drying to ensure even airflow and color.
- For powdered use, dry limes fully until nearly black and very lightweight; for whole use, stop drying while brown and easier to pierce.
- Soften very hard dried limes in boiling water before piercing to use in cooking.
- Reuse the blanching water to add citrus flavor to stews or rice.