Forum

In Olives, Lemons & Za'atar there is a recipe for pickled stuffed eggplant (something I have tried to make, unsuccessfully using other recipes- but that is another topic) and it calls for "lemon salt". This ingredient is not listed in "The Pantry" nor in the Index. It is used in place of lemon juice, so I'm wondering if it is citric acid? There is an ingreduent note that says it is primarily a preservative but sheds no other light on it. Does anyone know what it is?

"Lemon salt" is another name for citric acid or "sour salt".

This is quite interesting - both lemon-flavored salt and citric acid seem to be possible interpretations. I do think that if it were flavored salt, there would be a recipe for it in the book, and also the fact that it is a replacement for lemon juice points to citric acid. So I would go for citric acid.

Very interesting! nuts.com lists lemon salt as an alternative name for citric acid https://nuts.com/cookingbaking/salts/citric-acid.html

More support for the citric acid idea is that the two recipes in books I have for Middle Eastern pickled stuffed eggplants call for a strongly acidic ingredient -- sour pomegranates in one case, vinegar in the other.  Lemon-zest-flavored salt wouldn't accomplish the same thing for the recipe.

The notation that "it is primarily a preservative" cited by the original poster suggest that citric acid is the right choice.  Lemon-flavored salt isn't a preservative.  Also, I would not rely on the indexer for determining this, since the actual recipe and notes are not available that way.  The fact that the indexer doesn't mention lemon salt in connection with the recipe - although the original poster did find such a reference - indicates that the indexer is not returning all of the information in the recipe.

I looked at the entry the "Pantry" section of the book which happens to be viewable on Amazon: " . . . this 'sour salt' adds a concentrated lemony flavor without adding the additional juice. . . ."  That leads me to believe that when the author wrote "lemon salt", she was referring to citric acid, and the use of the term instead of "citric acid" is an editing anomaly.

If this particular recipe lists salt as an ingredient then I would go with citric acid.  However, if it does not list salt separately, I would go with lemon salt (you can buy or make yourself). 

I Just came back from a holiday in Jordan. While there I visited a spice shop, where they sold what they called "lemon salt". I tasted a little - it was definitely citric acid.