Ingredients
- 4 1/4 pounds fresh limes
Instructions
- Roll each lime hard under your palm on the bench before cutting. It loosens the segments from the pith, so the slices come off the knife intact instead of falling apart.
- Slice across into 1/4" rounds. Thinner than that and they curl into cups as they dry, which is charming in a cocktail and useless in a pot of tea.
- Leave the skin on and peel nothing. Almost all the aroma of a lime lives in the oil in its zest, and a peeled slice dries into sour paper.
- Pick the pips out as you go. A dried pip is bitter and hard enough to crack a tooth.
- Lay the rounds flat on mesh without touching. Limes are among the slowest things in this catalogue to dry, and two slices sharing an edge stay wet there for hours.
- Dry at 130 °F for 17 hours. Somewhere near the end the kitchen stops smelling of lime — that is the oil finishing, and it is a fair cue to start testing.
- A done slice rattles on the tray and snaps between your fingers with no give at the rind. If the rind bends at all it goes back on, because the flesh is always dry before the peel is.
- Drop them into a jar and keep it dark. They hold their scent for about six months, and a slice goes whole into a teapot or a Thai broth straight from the jar.
Nutrition
| Per 1 oz (28 g) | Per 100 g | |
|---|---|---|
| Energy | 58 kcal | 205 kcal |
| Protein | 1.4 g | 4.8 g |
| Fat | 0.4 g | 1.4 g |
| saturated | 0 g | 0.1 g |
| Carbohydrate | 14.9 g | 52.6 g |
| sugars | 3.3 g | 11.6 g |
| Fibre | 5.4 g | 19.1 g |
| Sodium | 4 mg | 14 mg |
Estimated from the ingredients, for the finished dried product. Actual values vary with the produce you use and how far you dry it.
