How would you make lemon pepper?

[vilasman]

Any ideas, I can't find lemon pepper corns in any of the stores I have looked

[buckytom]

dry some finely grated lemon zest, add cracked white pepper, and a little citric acid. if you want a little more flavor, add finely chopped lemon grass and some celery seed.
you could also add dried herbs like oregano, basil, coriander, and parsley.

[Hopz]

sorry, you won't find any lemon pepercorns, but you can add lemon zest to pepper...
easy peasy...

[Michael in FtW]

Yep, like Hopz and buckytom said ... Lemon Pepper is a seasoning (a blend of stuff), not a single spice (like peppercorns). Looking at the label of the jar I have (Adams) it contains: salt, malabar black pepper and other spices, natural flavors, MSG, onion, garlic, citric acid, calcium sterate, and yellow colorings. Don't know all of the ingredients but Mrs. Dash has a version that is advertised as: Zesty lemon peel, blended with cracked black pepper, coriander, oregano, and other spices (I couldn't find the actual ingredients panel listing). Sorry - I'm too lazy to go to the store tonight just to look it up ... but you can check it out the next time you're at the store.

Don't know where you live - but you should be able to find Lemon Pepper in any gorcery store (in America) in the spice section.

If you want to make it yourself - I did find one site with a recipe for Homemade Lemon-Pepper Seasoning - but it sounds kinda bland IMHO.

[ironchef]

If you're going to go through all that trouble to make homemade lemon pepper, I would rather use the effort and make flavored salt instead. It's more versatile and it tastes better. You can always add the fresh cracked pepper later.

BT was on the right track though. I've made a flavored citrus sea salt using lemon, lime, and orange zest, lavender, mint, and parsley. Depending on the dish we may make a small stripe or pyramid of salt on the plate, seperate from the food. It can be a cool novelty dish because it lets the guest flavor each piece of food themselves. Homemade flavored salts are better of being used as a finishing salt, like fleur de sal.

[amber]

Personally I would rather buy it ready made. I use McCormicks brand. It contains lemon peel, black pepper, cumin, red pepper, oregano, thyme, garlic, onion, citric acid and paprika ( this is a salt free version).

[GB]

I buy mine from pensys. I am not sure what is in it other than black pepper and lemon peel though.

I agree I would rather buy it than make it.

[buckytom]

making it is very easy, and tastes better imo, because it is made fresh. do you use freshly cracked pepper, or stuff that is gorund and sits around for a millenia?

just grate some lemon peel, more than you think you need with a good microplane zester, and spread it out and let it dry. you can speed the process in an oven or dehydrator. store this in the fridge, then when ready to make the lemon pepper, freshly crack some pepper and blend with the lemon zest. add a pinch of citric acid for extra pucker.

[jennyema]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GB I buy mine from pensys. I am not sure what is in it other than black pepper and lemon peel though. I agree I would rather buy it than make it.

Penzey's Sunny Florida seasoning rocks. It has lemon peel, orange peel, pepper and garlic!

[vilasman]

Well I have the zest of one lemon in a jar with about 5 oz of peppercorns.
I think I am going to put the juice of about 1/2 that lemon into the jar and some salt, but i am in a quandry about how much salt to put in it and what other spices to add