True Lemon, True Lime are this cook’s best friends

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This article was published 24/04/2015 (3919 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There’s something about citrus that just tastes like summer.

And while I’m not a huge fan of citrus fruits on their own (to be perfectly frank, they make me burp), or citrusy wines, I do love to use citrus in cooking.

One of my house specialties is Lemon Pepper Chicken Fettuccine, which I used to make using lemon juice. But that sometimes made the cream sauce curdle, because I like my LPCF to taste REALLY lemony.

And then there’s the lime juice with which I flavoured the chicken I put in chicken quesadillas. I got my lime flavour, all right, but sometimes the chicken got watery and was more steamed — or even boiled — than lightly browned. And the texture was, consequently, a bit rubbery — the furthest thing from ideal.

And while this is a wine column and not a food column, the pairing of wine with food is often an integral part of the enjoyment of the beverage, so please bear with me.

After I realized the lemon juice was giving me less than ideal results, I started buying lemon pepper for my fettuccine, and for a few years was delighted by the results. So I was understandably frustrated one day when I couldn’t find lemon pepper in ANY of the grocery stores I frequent in town. I mean, it was like every company had stopped making it.

And I’m fairly tenacious — I’ll look on the same shelves a dozen times, simply trying to will what I want into being there. I know, I know — that’s the definition of insanity, doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome. But I can’t tell you how many times I’ve persisted, moved things around a bit, and around a little bit more, and — voila! — found what I was searching for.

That, however, was not the case this time.

After giving them a thorough going over, I glowered at the spice shelves in the last store I checked — Sobeys West — closed my eyes, gritted my teeth and looked again. Still nothing.

But then this bright yellow cap, tucked behind a few other bottles, caught my eye.

“Success!” I thought, and grabbed the container.

But it wasn’t what I was after. I held in my hands a product called True Lemon, which I discovered, after reading the label, is crystallized lemon, to be used for cooking, baking and seasoning.

After all this searching for what had once been a readily available product, I’d run out of patience.

“Well, I can try this and add pepper, too,” I muttered as I walked away with the bottle in hand. I must admit I was still frustrated and not terribly optimistic this would work nearly as well as the lemon pepper had in the past.

When I got home and got ready to start preparing supper, I peeled the safety seal off the True Lemon. It just looked like powder. But it smelled great — really lemony.

And as is often the case when we give new things a chance, it turned out the True Lemon, combined with scads of freshly ground pepper, actually improved my Lemon Pepper Chicken Fettuccine! No curdling and no steamed chicken made for a WAY better dish. I was elated.

So I used the True Lemon for a few months, each time marvelling at how well it worked. Then, when I went to buy more of it, I noticed another product — True Lime. Without any hesitation, I grabbed a bottle of it, too. And as you might expect, I had the same great result for the quesadillas and fajitas in which I use lime. Fresh, zippy citrus flavour. No extra liquid.

A plastic bottle of True Lemon and/or True Lime contains 80 grams, and is supposed to equal the flavour of 15 lemons or limes. Neither has any calories, nor contains sugars — they’re both made, according to the label, from 100 per cent natural ingredients.

While fresh lemons and limes are divine, I’ve expanded now to sprinkling the True Lemon and True Lime on pickerel, cod, shellfish and more. I couldn’t be more enamoured with these products if I tried.

So for those of you who like citrus and adore convenience, I highly recommend True Lemon and True Lime.

And the foods they’re used in should pair beautifully with your favourite Sauvignon Blanc. The crystals work wonders in enhancing the taste of a gin (my favourite is Bombay Sapphire) and tonic, too. Just shake in a few grains and stir. I can almost guarantee you’ll love the result.

Diane Nelson is a longtime journalist and former Sun staffer who really likes wine. A lot.

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