Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
completely wiped out the lime harvest in Florida, and today all of the limes - both fresh
and processed - sold in the United States are imported, most of them from Mexico.
Because lemons and limes are valued mainly for their acidity, which decreases with
ripeness, they can be picked as soon as they reach minimal size and juice content, rather
than at a certain stage of maturity. Fruit that is harvested when it is young lasts longer than
fruit left to ripen further. The fruit is then sorted by color according to maturity and cured
in a controlled atmosphere - 45 to 55 degrees for lemons and 50 to 55 degrees for limes,
both at 85 to 95 percent humidity. During this process, the rind thins and becomes more
intense in color, and the flesh, which is hard and dry at harvest, becomes juicier. Both lem-
ons and limes are very cold sensitive. If they are stored below 50 degrees for too long, the
rind will become pitted and splotchy, and decay will accelerate. Fruit that is harvested at
an early age is prone to what those in the trade call "oil spotting" - brown stains on the
surface of the rind, caused when the oil cells rupture after the fruit has been bumped and
bruised.
Although most people tend to think of squeezing a lemon or lime for the juice, good
cooks know that the most flavorful part of the fruit is the peel, or, to be more specific,
the surface of the peel. That part is appropriately known as the "zest," where the fruit's
aromatic oil glands lie. The juice of a lemon or lime may have overtones of flavor, but
it is obscured by the extreme acidity. With the zest, there is very little pucker to distract
from the fruit's wonderful aromatic qualities. For this reason botanists call this part of the
peel the "flavedo." Just underneath it is the "albedo," the bitter part you don't want to eat.
The albedo is composed of white, pithy material - the main conduit for water and nutrition
when the fruit is on the tree. Culinarily, the albedo is used almost exclusively as a source
of pectin, which encourages jelling.
W H E R E THEY'RE GROWN: Lemons are grown mostly in California, with
some coming from Arizona and a few from Florida. Limes are almost entirely imported,
with most coming from Mexico.
