What is a Meyer lemon ?
The Meyer lemon is believed to be a hybrid between a lemon and a mandarin or orange .
Meyer lemons are named for Frank Meyer , the man who brought them to the
United States
in 1908. Meyer was a plant explorer working for the USDA when he "discovered " the soon-to-be-named Meyer hybrid tree growing as a potted plant on the patio of a home in
Beijing
Today , Meyer lemons are grown commercially in
California
and
Florida
. They are a challenge to ship and store commercially, so you might not find them very far from where they were grown.
What 's so special about a Meyer lemon ? In general , they're much sweeter than regular lemons , and they have a complex citrus taste that comes from their mandarin /orange lineage. For this reason , Meyer lemons have a certain cachet (and price tag to go with) that regular lemons lack.
We wrote about the Meyer lemon at the Cookthink blog after friends shipped a box of them USPS from the tree outside their home in Marin County . We tried Meyer lemon souffl, chicken baked with Meyer lemon slices, Meyer lemon cocktails and roasted eggplant with Meyer lemon vinaigrette . Everything we made with the lemons was bright , sweet and intensely citrusy .
Meyer lemon curd , however, took the blue ribbon . We ate it atop waffles in the morning and sponge cake at night. Then, we served it to guests who passed around the nearly-empty bowl to scrape together one more spoonful .