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I just joined so Hi everyone!  I'm so glad I stumbled across this genius site - now I will feel justified in buying cookbooks again.  The last few days I've been indexing my personal recipes - we're getting ready to move house & the thought of packing the piles of files & boxes with bits of paper was enough to get me motivated to do that.  I ended up tossing a whole lot & indexing only those I knew I'd be likely to cook, found some old loves & lots that I will definitely try now I'll be able to find them.  Interesting also to look back over my journey as a cook & some of the phases I went through.

A question - lemon/orange rind/zest - fresh grated - can't seem to find it in the ingredients & it seems weird to add lemons, although accurate since it's the only way to get the rind, I'd like at a glance to see that the recipe includes the zest rather than the juice - sometimes I juice & freeze my lemons & chuck the skins, other times at the end of the season the rinds are less useable, in any case it's usually fairly essential to the recipe while not always available...  Am I missing an ingredient or is "lemons" the correct way?  Or, should it be considered a store-cupboard ingredient (although it's not always in the "store cupboard"...). 

Hi PlanetClaire and welcome to EYB.  Unfortunately I don't have an answer to your question other than to say I'd likely go with fresh lemons given the choice but agree that zest would be a better option.  That said, I wanted to let you know I've been enjoying your recipe notes thus far and look forward to your future contributions here @ EYB.  I made the "green goo" today because of your comments!  Thanks and welcome!

Wow that's exciting Breadcrumbs, yeah that green goo was a knockout!

Welcome! Always nice to have someone this enthusiastic join us.

Both lemon zest and lemon juice are indexed as lemons - it's one of those choices that have been made at some point and are pretty impossible to change now.

Lemons are store-cupboard ingredients. The idea is that most people have at least one lemon somewhere, so if there is less than one lemon in the recipe it isn't included in the ingredient list, if there is a whole lemon or more it is included.

Welcome, PlanetClaire!  Hope you continue to find Eat Your Books increasingly useful and enjoyable in the new year.

As Wester says, in EYB indexing a lemon is considered to be a store-cupboard ingredient. A recipe that uses up a whole lemon or more ("juice of one lemon", e.g.), or has "lemon" in the recipe title, requires 'lemons' in the ingredient list.  The threshold amount of juice for listing lemons is a quarter-cup (2 fluid ounces or 4 tablespoons). Here's the table that specifies the thresholds for listing different store-cupboard ingredients: Store Cupboard Ingredients Table.

Zest is a touch problematic, and unlike lemon juice, isn't addressed in the table.  If a recipe just calls for an unspecified amount of lemon zest, or a specified amount that is clearly less than a lemon's worth, it should definitely be treated as an unmentioned, below-threshold store cupboard ingredient.  In my indexing, I've usually treated "zest of one lemon" as a cue to list 'lemons' in the ingredients. Technically, though, that may not be correct: after all, if you simply zest it, you haven't used up that lemon -- the pithy, naked fruit is still sitting in the fridge, available for other recipes.... <g>

Deborah is the EYB indexing authority; maybe she'll weigh in here.

Meanwhile, very best wishes for your upcoming move to be smooth and minimally stressful.

Got it, thanks ellabee & wester!  As long as I can index consistently with EYB I'm happy to live with that tiny problem.

Happy to weigh in here!  Actually, fresh lemon zest/peel is NOT an EYB Store-Cupboard Ingredient, so no matter how little/much is called  for, it's always listed, as the whole fruit, 'lemons'.  It's only fresh-squeezed lemon juice or lemons themselves that are SCI's and subject to the thresholds in the Store-Cupboard Ingredients Table, unless "lemon/s" appears in the recipe title as ellabee stated.  There's some more info about dealing with citrus fruits here in the online instructions; basically, fresh citrus juice, zest, and peel are indexed as the whole fruit, so 'oranges', 'limes', 'grapefruits', and so on. 

Thanks Deborah, I like that logic.

I did actually read all of the help when I got permission to index my first book but that bit didn't stick I guess.  Then when the question came up with my personal recipes I searched for "rind" but no results.  Should have searched for "zest" - the help makes it perfectly clear.  Probably need to read the help a few times :)

Well, now I'm *really* glad PlanetClaire asked the question -- because I've indexed several books, and I'm now thinking I may have left out lemons a few times when small quantities of zest are called for.  Indexing's a constant learning experience...

I'm sure I did the same too.  I have meyer lemon tree that fruits all year long which produces lots of juice and zest.  I freeze all the zest of lemons we use for juice.