Lemon substitute?

[swan_tower]

My husband is allergic to citrus — not badly so, not to the level of “get him to a hospital” or “break out an epi pen,” but he should try to avoid it when possible.

. . . there are a lot of recipes that call for small amounts of lemon juice.

Is there anything that would make a good substitute for this? Something mildly acidic, I presume — maybe some kind of vinegar? White wine strikes me as the most “neutral,” but then again, I know little enough about this that I may have just typed utter nonsense. Recommendations appreciated.

Originally published at Swan Tower. You can comment here or there.

Comments

[shark_hat]

Yes, a mild vinegar is the obvious thing- white wine or rice are fairly neutral, or if part of the point of the lemon juice is flavour as well as acidity, balsamic vinegar has fruitiness. See which you like better.

[swan_tower]

I'll experiment, thanks!

[mrissa]

I would probably default to a rice vinegar as fairly mild/neutral, but you may actually like the specific flavor of something else better than pseudo-neutrality.

[swan_tower]

True -- but in the first instance I'm inclined to go with "not distracting" rather than "well, that's . . . interesting." :-P

[marthawells]

I usually use apple cider vinegar in place of lemon juice. In small amounts, it balances the fatty flavors like the lemon juice would. (Larger amounts give the dish a little tang, like you'd want for sauerbraten.) I also second the recommendation for Rice Wine vinegar.

[swan_tower]

I'll try both of them, thanks! (Er, not at the same time.)

[ellen_fremedon]

If you want to replace the flavor without adding acid (or in addition to a neutrally-flavored acid like vinegar), powdered sumac berries have a fruity, citrusy taste--not identical to lemon, but it can play the same sort of role.

[swan_tower]

That might be very good for the things that also call for a tiny bit of zest! Or if the vinegar itself doesn't quite fit.

[brooksmoses]

Verjus (juice of unripe grapes) might also be a good substitute, but I've only seen one bottle of it on grocery store shelves around here, but that was several years ago and it was hiding on an upper shelf and a year expired when I found it.

Also, per http://www.chatelaine.com/in-the-kitchen/lemon-juice-or-vinegar-which-is-more-acidic/, you'll probably want to use a little less vinegar than you would lemon juice. They cite a "half as much" substitution rule, but note that that seems to be too little as far as their experiments with ricotta-making go.

[swan_tower]

Huh, verjus is an interesting suggestion! Navarro Vineyards used to sell some, I think, but it looks like they don't anymore.

And thanks for the note about changing proportions; that's very good to know.

[3rdragon]

Yes, The Food Substitutions Bible says that you should use 1.5 tsp of white wine vinegar, sherry vinegar, or champagne vinegar for 1 tbsp of lemon juice.

But like the person up-thread, I generally use apple cider vinegar or rice wine vinegar. Occasionally white vinegar if I don't want any flavor contribution at all. Though I've curdled milk for cheese with apple cider vinegar and not noticed any flavor weirdness.

[green_knight]

Sour mango powder - amchoor - is something I use when I have no lemon or lime at hand. If he's not allergic to mangos, that might be an alternative.

[swan_tower]

The sad thing is, we always have lemon on hand, because we've got a fabulous Meyer lemon tree on our property. :-(

Thanks for the rec -- I never would have thought of that!

[martianmooncrab]

I have a similar citrus sensativity, so I rely on a ton of balsamic vinegars in all sorts of flavors. Or I just leave it out. (because I have a sulfa allergy and thats in wines)

[rosefox]

I'd personally dig out the lactic acid powder but that is probably not a normal solution. :)

(3/4 tsp lactic acid powder = 1 T fresh lemon juice if you are also the sort of person who just happens to have lactic acid powder lying around.)

For lemon flavor without citrus, try sumac powder.

[landofnowhere]

It sounds like you have a bunch of great suggestions here, but just one more: I used tart cherry juice as a replacement for lemon juice in cookie/pancake recipes when I had the former (given to me by a friend who was moving out of the house) but not the latter. It worked fine -- though these were non-dairy recipes which were using the lemon juice to replace the acidity of milk.

[landofnowhere]

Wait, now the internet is telling me that cherry juice is alkaline! OK, now I have no idea why the recipes worked... so disregard my suggestion.

After more research, I've determined that I should not trust everything I read on the internet, and cherries are indeed acidic.

[wshaffer]

Pomegranate molasses has a kind of sour-sweet flavor that might work well as a substitute for lemon juice. I'm not sure what proportions you'd use, and it does have a very dark red color to it which might make some dishes oddly pink.