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Citrus × aurantiifolia and relatives. Sharper and more floral than lemon, and not a substitute for it — lime carries a distinct bitterness and a terpene aroma that dominates a dressing where lemon recedes into it. Southeast Asian, Mexican and Caribbean cold food is built on lime; Mediterranean cold food on lemon.
The two you will meet
- Persian / Tahiti lime — the large seedless supermarket lime. Mild, juicy, the everyday one.
- Key / Mexican lime — small, thin-skinned, seedy, much more aromatic and more acidic. What nước chấm and a proper margarita want.
Makrut lime is a third thing: grown for its bumpy zest and its leaves, both intensely perfumed, with almost no usable juice. The leaves are the ingredient.
Getting the juice out
A room-temperature lime gives noticeably more juice than a cold one — take it out half an hour ahead, or microwave it for 10 seconds. Roll it hard under your palm first to rupture the juice vesicles. A lime yields around 30 ml / 2 tbsp.
Zest before you juice. Every time. The zest holds the aromatic oils, and it is impossible to recover from a squeezed husk.
In cold food
- Add it late. Lime's aroma compounds are volatile and dull within an hour of being mixed, which is why a dressing tastes brighter the moment it is made.
- It browns less than lemon on cut avocado, and works better with it.
- Bottled lime juice is a genuinely poor substitute — it is pasteurised, and the cooked flavour is obvious in a raw dressing. This matters more for lime than for lemon.
Keeping
A week at room temperature, three refrigerated in a sealed bag. Zest freezes well; juice freezes well in an ice tray.
Elsewhere on the site
Used in: rice noodle bowl · poke bowl · fish sauce · avocado
Related: lemon · cilantro · red wine vinegar · Fruit