Dried Lime

Dried lime is the spice produced from the whole fruit of Citrus aurantiifolia, a small sour lime in the citrus family (Rutaceae). Fresh limes are boiled in brine, then left to bake in the sun for weeks until they shrink, harden, and blacken inside, turning intensely tart with a fermented, faintly bitter funk that fresh lime never has. Pierced whole and simmered or ground into a powder, dried lime is a backbone souring agent across Persian, Iraqi, and Gulf cooking, where it’s called limu omani, loomi, or noomi basra.