There are two reasons to section¹ a citrus. The first is for presentation, an elegant way to use lemons, oranges and grapefruit pieces in all kinds of recipes, from salads to cakes. The second is to remove the tough, often bitter, pith and inner membrane so that the flavor of the fruit can shine.

As we’re at the height of citrus season, with exotic blood oranges and meyer lemons in the stores, it’s a good time to take advantage of these wonderful fruits.

The basic idea is to first peel the fruit, taking the white pith along with it, and then separate as much of the flesh fruit from the inner membranes. A sharp knife, as always, is important here, I like to use a small paring knife for most fruits because it’s thinner blade lets me extract more flesh. A good chef’s knife is fine, though, especially for bigger citrus like grapefruit.

First, cut off each end of the fruit so that it’s flat enough to stand up on its own. You want to cut just to the flesh of the fruit, but not too much. It’s ok to take a few shallow slices, you can always cut more.

With the fruit standing on one end, cut into the peel where it meets the flesh and use a sawing motion to work down the side of the fruit and remove the peel and the pith. Make sure to follow the shape of the fruit as you work down by adjusting the angle of your knife along the way. Try to avoid cutting into the flesh as much as possible but make sure to get the bitter pith.

Rotate and peel the fruit until all of the pith and peel are removed. You may have a few white pith pieces left, just trim those off on your own. What’s left is an orb of just the flesh of the fruit and the inner membranes that hold the sections together.

Now you want to cut each section of the fruit out and leave the membranes that separate each section behind. Cut as close to the membrane as possible, towards the center of the fruit, to get as much of the fruit out, but be careful to fully detach the flesh from the membrane. The first and last sections will probably be the hardest. Be sure to pick out any seeds that may be lingering.

You’ll be left with peel, the self contained core and your beautiful citrus sections. Be sure to squeeze the core over a bowl to save any juice you might want to save for salad dressing or to use in a recipe.

It wasn’t that long ago that I learned that citrus fruits peak in winter — it seems bizarre, doesn’t it? Not just because we’re used to drinking orange juice whenever we please, thankyouverymuch, but citrus just conveys an image of warmer, sunnier climes. Well, believe it, we’re right at the tail end of prime citrus season. Which means now’s a great time to stock up on fresh Meyer lemons, blood oranges, red grapefruits, etc. — you’ll probably even find good deals on organic varieties from places other than Central and South America.

As luck would have it, I was visiting my family a few weeks ago, when a dear friend, Dr. Jim Price, reminded me of one of the simple pleasures of citrus — preserving them in salt. Preserved lemons are usually associated with Mediterranean cooking, with tagines and lambs and Moroccan spices, but they’re fairly versatile. Anything that you might add a normal lemon to, from roasted chicken to poached fish, is suitable for preserved lemons, with a distinctive flavor. Hank, over at Hunter/Angler/Gardener/Cook (a wonderful food blog if you haven’t yet discovered it) has an interesting perspective on the history and uses of preserved lemon.

So, what are we talking about here? Why even bother preserving lemons, aren’t they a buck a pop in the grocery store year round? True enough but the preservation — really, a kind of pickling (continuing our theme from Neven’s eggs) — adds a different kind of flavor. It’s a great way to take advantage of citrus fruits when they’re at their peak. Also, you need to understand that the thing you’re preserving here is the peel of the fruit, not the pulp, which will be too salty to eat by the time you’re done. This is a great opportunity to seek out, say, organic Meyer lemons, which should be readily available and fairly reasonable this time of year.

Your ingredients are:

• Meyer lemons (8 or 10 should fill a quart jar nicely), washed well. It makes sense to go organic here since the peel is the end product.
• A quarter cup or so of kosher salt
• Optional spices as you see fit (peppercorns, bay leaves, ginger, cinnamon, and/or coriander)
• Mason jar(s)

The technique is really pretty simple. First, sterilize your jars by running them through the dishwasher or boiling them for 10 minutes or so. Fill the bottom of each jar with about 1-2 tablespsoons of kosher salt - enough to obscure the bottom of the jar. Mostly quarter each lemon by slicing it enough to open it up without slicing all the way through the base — each lemon should be loosely held together at the bottom. Next, liberally sprinkle each exposed side of the lemon with salt then stuff it into the jar. You want to try to extract as much of the acidic lemon juice as possible to help create the brine for pickling the lemons. Fill the jar and make sure there’s enough lemon juice to cover the lemons, you may need to add a little extra from leftover lemons. Optionally, add any spices you’d like to test out — I made one batch plain, one with peppercorns and a few bay leaves. On a whim, I also made a batch using clementine mandarine oranges, those turned out pretty good, too.

Seal and let sit at room temperature for a few days, flipping the jar every other day to evenly distribute the brine. Refrigerate for at least 3 weeks before they’re ready to be used.

When it comes time, fish out a lemon from the jar, rinse the salt and throw out the pulp, which will be too salty to eat anyway. Slice the peels as thick you please, add to a salad, grate over a roasted chicken, use to flavor a baked fish or even add a distinctive twist to a favorite cocktail. These should last a few months in the fridge no problem.