In prep for lot’s of Mexican food and MARGARITAS, I bought a huge bag of limes as opposed to a few at a time. I usually don’t store citrus in the fridge until I cut or zest it, but I rarely by a lot of it at one time.
So how do you store them (upper shelves of my fridge are 40°F)?
In the vegetable drawer, in a plastic bag, 'cause limes always dry out on me. I also wash and dry them to deter mold. In case that works, and maybe it does.
Usually in what is labeled as the "vita fresh fruit " in my fancy fridge,
The citrus in my local markets are sold at room temp, so I store the ones I buy at room temp.
Unless I’m using in a day or two, always in the veg drawer of the fridge. In my experience they’re much more perishable than lemons, so I try to work away at the stash consistently, but on the sooner rather than later end. But you should be good for a month, maybe two.
Seriously?! Never seen that no matter how I store them (maybe the better part of a month). Not that they go bad, but get very hard/dried out.
Another thought would be juicing them (since that is mostly what I use them for). How long does fresh squeezed lime juice last, and will adding tequila or vodka to it make it last longer (I have read that vodka helps significantly)?
Neither fresh lime nor fresh lemon juice have a long fridge life. Both tend to become bitter within a couple of days.
And alcohol doesn’t help?
I wonder if it depends on how you want to use it. I don’t see any limes growing around here, but various oranges and lemons seem to hang on trees for a long time, even abandoned ones. At least the zest and the juice of some stored lemons and oranges seem to do well.
I am making some orange jam from some oranges someone gave us months ago. I don’t recall anything like that with limes, but they aren’t grown commercially around here. I think we don’t have the right humidity.
It is claimed that storing whole lemons in the fridge, submerged in water in a lidded jar, extends their life. I’d experiment with a few limes, using them at successively longer intervals.
What @linguafood said! I’ve always had the lime juice go bitter on me, in both the fridge or freezer. I’ve never mixed with alcohol first, but you could try it as an experiment. Remember though, that alcohol doesn’t freeze completely, so that may affect things. Yes, I’ve successfully kept limes for longer than a month. Just keep wrapped well, and use the ones that need to be used first - you’ll know by the looks of them.
I keep limes and lemons separately in the porous net bags in the veg cooler, then when they are sarting to fade, zest rinds with microplane grater and freeze, then juice and freezer in small glass containers like the size of spice bottles. Works really well for me.
When I squeeze fresh lime or lemon juice, I freeze in small containers for later use. A dedicated ice cube tray would work as well.
I freeze lime juice and zest. It tastes fine to me.
When I have large q of citrus I:
Peel all the rinds and salt or sugar cure.
Squeeze all the juice and put it in a bottle and keep it in the fridge. This lasts a good few weeks, otherwise you can store in freezer.
Lime storage has always vexed me. I’m enjoying looking for suggestions. I wonder why lemons aren’t as persnickety?
I just let the zest dry by itself (takes 24-36 hours) in a small dish on my counter. Then I scrape it up and put it in a small sample Bon Maman jelly jar.
That has not been my experience with lime or lemon juice. After 2 days both are bitter. Maybe you have a magic citrus juice storage bottle.
Has anyone tried the submerged-in-water method? (Just trying it for avocados but I haven’t cut into one yet.)
Freezing also works for whole limes / lemons. And if in the fridge, a ziplock back is better than loose or other non-airtight plastic bag.
Unless they’ve been partly zested, which makes them go mushy and moldy pretty quickly. Ask how I know.
