It's more involved than you might think

July 19, 2019 2:45 PM

How to Make Preserved Lemons in the Workshop
posted by clawsoon (51 comments total)

This man is the type of insane I aspire to be.
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 3:04 PM on July 19, 2019 [14 favorites]

Mix everything in a bowl and you're golden!
posted by aubilenon at 3:05 PM on July 19, 2019 [1 favorite]

But first you need a bowl.
posted by clawsoon at 3:06 PM on July 19, 2019 [2 favorites]

Heh. That was excellent. Good thing he didn't try to make an apple pie.

Also: Dovetails with handtools! Respect.
posted by gwint at 3:06 PM on July 19, 2019 [6 favorites]

Halfway through, I realized I was watching with a big smile on my face. This is delightful. Thanks!
posted by MonkeyToes at 3:08 PM on July 19, 2019 [3 favorites]

But he is not silent and barefoot and shirtless in the Australian bush.
posted by Bee'sWing at 3:10 PM on July 19, 2019 [6 favorites]

Fun and remarkably relaxing!
posted by gryphonlover at 3:20 PM on July 19, 2019

I lost it at "I also need a knife".
posted by Greg_Ace at 3:24 PM on July 19, 2019 [4 favorites]

The This Old Tony inspired joke of tapping his fingers and and then shaping the back of the knife was particularly satisfying.
posted by Bee'sWing at 3:26 PM on July 19, 2019 [5 favorites]

This is basically what Minecraft would look like in real life.
posted by wanderingmind at 3:29 PM on July 19, 2019 [2 favorites]

If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe. -Carl Sagan
posted by Splunge at 3:36 PM on July 19, 2019 [6 favorites]

Ninja'd by gwint!
posted by Splunge at 3:38 PM on July 19, 2019

If you don't have a loom to weave your own tea towel, store bought is fine.
posted by Mary Ellen Carter at 3:46 PM on July 19, 2019 [10 favorites]

This was super fabulous, I was kinda disappointed to find out the rest of his channel is not the same concept.
posted by sixswitch at 3:59 PM on July 19, 2019 [2 favorites]

I'm now craving a video where someone makes a cast iron skillet from scratch. It would complete the missing piece.
posted by clawsoon at 3:59 PM on July 19, 2019 [6 favorites]

That fork is gorgeous.
posted by Rufous-headed Towhee heehee at 4:03 PM on July 19, 2019 [5 favorites]

I have a friend who stated a goal, some 30 years ago, of walking naked into the woods and returning with a clock. The project has not progressed particularly far, but he did manage to finally make brass starting from raw materials. I didn't ask, but I assume he was fully clothed while doing so.
posted by sjswitzer at 4:09 PM on July 19, 2019 [13 favorites]

Those tools must be ridiculously sharp.
posted by slkinsey at 4:21 PM on July 19, 2019 [1 favorite]

I'm now craving a video where someone makes a cast iron skillet from scratch. It would complete the missing piece.

"From mine to table."
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 4:31 PM on July 19, 2019 [13 favorites]

Every time he started another thing, I laughed with delight.

Wonderful.
posted by Archer25 at 4:43 PM on July 19, 2019 [1 favorite]

sjswitzer: I have a friend who stated a goal, some 30 years ago, of walking naked into the woods and returning with a clock.

If you were a better friend, you would've found him an open-minded clock-making Swiss hermit by now.
posted by clawsoon at 4:45 PM on July 19, 2019 [6 favorites]

For me this is the exact psychological inverse of those videos where people pretend to repair furniture with ramen noodles and super glue.
posted by penduluum at 5:02 PM on July 19, 2019 [4 favorites]

That fork is gorgeous.
I'm skeptical about how pleasant tasting a brass fork would be. And acidic lemons couldn't possibly help.
posted by Bee'sWing at 5:15 PM on July 19, 2019 [1 favorite]

For both the knife and fork the bolster appeared out of nowhere. Not doubting he made them, but that would have been the most interesting part to see.
posted by sjswitzer at 5:17 PM on July 19, 2019

I have a friend who can make anything. His current project is to make ... a watch. A mechanical watch. Starting with the case but eventually the movement too. He is going to really dig this. By the way, it is possibly the best cooking video I've ever watched.
posted by Gilgamesh's Chauffeur at 5:18 PM on July 19, 2019

I have a friend who stated a goal, some 30 years ago, of walking naked into the woods and returning with a clock.

If you were pitching the novel you’d say “it’s Growth of the Soil, but with a clock.”
posted by notyou at 5:24 PM on July 19, 2019 [1 favorite]

A sundial is a clock. He coulda come back with a stick and some pebbles by now. The thirty year tan...I preserved meyer lemon this year. They are so amazing, worth going to any length.
posted by Oyéah at 5:27 PM on July 19, 2019 [1 favorite]

It's kind of a ... weird gimmick for a channel. Preserving lemons from scratch, sure, cool. But when the "from scratch" involves crafting your own tools, it's a weird place to draw the line?

Yeah, I'm gonna make all my own tools, using these storebought tools.
posted by kafziel at 5:51 PM on July 19, 2019 [1 favorite]

What if it's just a fun way to frame a video about various wood and metalworking projects, and not actually an attempt to document a serious attempt to rigorously make something from scratch?
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 6:24 PM on July 19, 2019 [13 favorites]

When life hands you lemons, make lemon aids.
posted by eponym at 7:23 PM on July 19, 2019 [12 favorites]

When he went for the fork, I said you are not! You asshole!
posted by KleenexMakesaVeryGoodHat at 7:52 PM on July 19, 2019 [3 favorites]

What if it's just a fun way to frame a video about various wood and metalworking projects, and not actually an attempt to document a serious attempt to rigorously make something from scratch?

What if I want to know how to preserve lemons?
posted by kafziel at 9:01 PM on July 19, 2019

I have only seen lemons preserved in jars, so I was totally waiting for the glass blowing to start.
posted by Sophie1 at 9:18 PM on July 19, 2019 [12 favorites]

Also: the point of the screws being...? (Not much pressing going on, and, with the cling film and oil on top, no need for hermetic sealage either, so was it just to steampunk it up a notch?) Excellent narrative/sound/edit choices, mind you, just the right amounts of, erm, pith and zest.
posted by progosk at 11:17 PM on July 19, 2019 [2 favorites]

I saw “to make an apple pie from scratch you must first create the universe” and immediately thought of this: http://www.metafilter.com/143143/To-create-an-apple-pie-from-scratch-you-must-first-invent-the-Matrix
posted by DoctorFedora at 11:39 PM on July 19, 2019

I’ve taken to putting preserved lemon in gin and tonic, which is nice. I imagine you could also make a delicious preserved lemon dirty martini, but I’m trying to go easy on the neat spirits at the minute.
posted by Bloxworth Snout at 1:41 AM on July 20, 2019 [1 favorite]

Waaaait a minute, this is the backwards scissors guy! ( Extremely ornate frustration warning)
posted by Mizu at 4:30 AM on July 20, 2019 [1 favorite]

I was mildly disappointed when he didn't make the clingfilm from scratch.
posted by terretu at 4:37 AM on July 20, 2019

I really like this guy and I adore the conceit of the video but I'd be lying if I didn't admit that a lot of my enjoyment comes from the way that, after all that work, he basically makes preserved lemons in a Ziploc bag.

That fork, though. Wowza.
posted by range at 4:46 AM on July 20, 2019 [3 favorites]

This is a whole new level of gilding the lily
posted by GuyZero at 9:18 AM on July 20, 2019

This is pretty brilliant, and makes me miss my father. I would've sent this to him in a heartbeat.
posted by nevercalm at 9:25 AM on July 20, 2019 [2 favorites]

A container... which I also need to get.
posted by The corpse in the library at 9:33 AM on July 20, 2019

Waaaait a minute, this is the backwards scissors guy! ( Extremely ornate frustration warning)

Is that why he made the knife backwards? Curvy bit’s supposed to be the blade, dude.
posted by Sys Rq at 12:25 PM on July 20, 2019

This is great! And folks who are complaining should just suck lemons, okay?
posted by CCBC at 6:25 PM on July 20, 2019

The shape of the knife resembles a santoku or deba knife overall, and given the blade carving and handle style, I think it’s safe to assume he was going for a Japanese-style knife
posted by DoctorFedora at 9:22 PM on July 20, 2019 [2 favorites]

For those of you craving a clock, there's some amazing craftsmanship in this 24-part series in which a clock is constructed from stock metal. There's also a 12-minute cut of the 1000-hour process.
posted by clawsoon at 5:26 AM on July 21, 2019 [1 favorite]

At least some of the tools appear to be handmade as well, for example the router plane. The whole thing reminds me of This Old Tony's mocha pot. The thought of acidic lemon and brass fork made me wince too, he could've tinned it.
posted by St. Oops at 11:28 AM on July 21, 2019

Well that was delightful.
posted by cortex at 3:48 PM on July 21, 2019

Step one, build a cutting board! Great video, thanks for the link. Considering that in another video he makes an astrolabe this seems like a fun, back to basics video for his site and not a nefarious plot to detract from the fact that he doesn't do all of his own smelting.

At least some of the tools appear to be handmade as well, for example the router plane.

I saw that! He may also have made the Japanese pull plane he used in making the box.

Frank Klausz teaches a watertight joint for the bottom of stone ponds that may be useful, but the leak seems to have been from the side swelling, expanding and splitting at the dovetail how can you prevent that?
posted by ActingTheGoat at 3:57 PM on July 21, 2019

There's a tradition somewhere (?) of making watertight wooden boxes. They're made to fit together somewhat loosely, so as the wood swells, the gaps close and seal themselves instead of cracking at too-tight seams. I believe they do not use dovetail joints, but I can't remember any more than that.
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 7:32 AM on July 22, 2019 [2 favorites]

Cedar Bentwood Chests of the First Nations of the Pacific North West
posted by Mei's lost sandal at 10:09 AM on July 22, 2019