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Fruit from India, Pakistan, North Africa

Dry-salted lime pickle (nimbu ka achar, salt-only)नींबू का अचार

Quartered ripe limes are layered with dry salt, 1 kg for every 4 kg of fruit, and weighted under a cloth until their own juice forms a brine in about a day. The container then stands in the sun, and the limes ferment for one to four weeks, giving off bubbles of carbon dioxide, until they are sour.

Fully documentedFruit8 days – 29 days

Recipe

Dry-salted lime pickle (nimbu ka achar, salt-only), a photo from Wikimedia Commons
Photo: Suyash.dwivedi, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Amounts from a sourceFAO's description of the dry-salting method, with the salt given per 4 kg of limes. It names no batch size beyond filling the barrel three quarters full.
Fully ripe limes, washed and quartered4 kg[fao134]
Pure common salt1 kgNo anti-caking agents; lime, iron or magnesium impurities spoil the pickle[fao134]
Spices with oil or vinegarTo local tasteAdded when the limes are packed; chilli is common in India and Pakistan[fao134]
Starterspontaneous

Total time across the recorded steps: 8 days – 29 days

Start
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What changes: Ripe limes are washed and cut into quarters

Step 1 of 4
Wash and quarter ripe limes
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

Only fully ripe limes without bruises are used; slicing the skin is an alternative to quartering. Output: lime quarters.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Quartered ripe limes are layered with dry salt, 1 kg for every 4 kg of fruit, and weighted under a cloth until their own juice forms a brine in about a day. The container then stands in the sun, and the limes ferment for one to four weeks, giving off bubbles of carbon dioxide, until they are sour. Made in 4 steps over 8 days – 29 days. The longest step, stand in the sun and ferment, takes 7–28 days (Battcock M 1998). Salt is 25 % (Battcock M 1998).

Key numbers
Main step7–28 daysReported[fao134]Stand in the sun and ferment
Salt25 %Reported[fao134]Layer with salt under a weight until a brine forms

What makes this one different

This pickle is made with dry salt only, and the limes make their own brine. The brined lime pickle is dipped in hot water first, covered with brine, then sun-dried until the skin browns.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Brined lime pickleLimes dipped in hot water at 60–65 °C for about 5 minutes, cut, covered with brine for 24 hours to ferment, then sun-dried for 2–3 days until the skin turns brown [fao134].
  • Lamoun makbous (Levant and North Africa)Sliced lemons covered in salt for at least 24 hours, then drained and packed in oil and spices [fao134].

Safety

The finished pickle is high in acid, so FAO rates the risk of food poisoning as low; keep it in a cool place [fao134]. Market Indian pickles are high in acid (low pH) [kharat2016].

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

Wikipedia's article on South Asian pickle says the Sanskrit epic Nalachampu (915 CE) describes pickles made from lemon and lime among other fruits, and that medieval cookbooks such as the Manasollasa (1130 CE) give pickle recipes using lemons and limes [wp-pickle].

  1. [fao134] Battcock M., Azam-Ali S. 1998, Fermented fruits and vegetables. A global perspective, FAO Agricultural Services Bulletin 134, chapter 6.1.1 Dry salted lime pickle and 6.2.2 Lime pickle (brined), after Lal et al. 1986 and Kordylas 1990gov
  2. [kharat2016] Kharat M.M., Adiani V., Variyar P., Sharma A., Singhal R.S. 2016, Antioxidant compounds in traditional Indian pickles may prevent the process-induced formation of benzene, J Food Prot 79(1):123–131, doi:10.4315/0362-028X.JFP-15-218 (abstract)paper
  3. [prakash2023] Prakash V., Madhavan A., Veedu A.P., Babu P., Jothish A., Nair S.S., Suhail A., Prabhakar M., Sain T., Rajan R., Somanathan P., Abhinand K., Nair B.G., Pal S. 2023, Harnessing the probiotic properties and immunomodulatory effects of fermented food-derived Limosilactobacillus fermentum strains, Frontiers in Nutrition 10:1200926 (isolation from a lemon pickle, Methods and abstract)paper
  4. [wp-pickle] Wikipedia, South Asian pickle (history section)wiki