There’s nothing more refreshing or tantalizing on the taste buds than the fresh, zesty flavor of colorful citrus fruits, especially lemons and oranges which make the perfect breakfast wake up drink. It’s such a delicious, healthy and tasty, Vitamin C packed punch to kick-start your day. Juice is also fantastic for the immune system and great at warding off those common colds especially at this time of year.
Kids and adults love the fresh taste of home prepared orange juice, and it’s so much more satisfying and rewarding then store bought versions. However, knowing how to get the most juice out of your lemon to extract its full potential isn’t just the stuff of old wives tales as you’ll discover if you read on.
Ever wondered if there were any special tricks to squeezing your lemons?
If you’ve ever tried to make your own citrus-based juice drinks, or just wanted to get more of the good stuff out of your lemons (maybe for a cocktail or two!) you might have been shocked at just how many it takes and how little juice you can physically manage to get out of your fruits! You’re certainly not on your own if you’ve spent time in the kitchen without a juice extractor trying to encourage out the very last drops of juice so that you can get your money’s worth from your fruit yield.
Are there any lifehacks that we know about you might be asking, that we can pass on to you today? Well, we’re glad you asked as yes, you’re very much in the right place for some serious tips on how to get the most juice from your lemons and squeeze those last delicious juicy drops of flavor out of those zesty citrus fruits.
Squeezing lemons the right way
We’re being serious; if you just know how, you will be amazed at how juicy those lemons can be. Prepare to learn something new and get ready to put these hacks immediately into action. We promise they do work. We’ve successfully tried them out on many an occasions and have always been delighted by the extra liquid yield we’ve managed to get.
Get rolling those lemons across your countertop before you even think about slicing them!
Not heard that one before? Honestly, it’s a real classic, and it doesn’t just work on lemons either. Grab your fruit, make sure you have access to a clean and firm, flat work surface then get rolling, rolling, rolling! What happens is that the action breaks down those membranes around the inner capsule in the fleshy part of your fruit that is holding in all that juice and flavor. If you don’t have a juicing tool or an extractor and you are trying to maximize your juice content the good old fashioned way, by hand, then this tip will really help.
Have access to a microwave? Then you’re also in luck!
Again, there is proper science behind this lemon squeezing hack. If it’s old news to you, apologies that we’re not about to revolutionize your next margarita cocktail making session, but for the rest of you, stand by to discover another superb tip that really does work!
Pop your lemons (or even oranges) into the microwave for about 10 seconds. You’re not trying to cook them! What you are going to achieve, similar to results from the previous countertop rolling experiment, is to “energize” the water molecules inside the fruit. The microwaves pass all the way through the fruit, waking up and exciting the water content inside the flesh of the lemons. That, in turn, helps to make them much more amenable to a good old squeeze.
That quick blast of heat, combined with the agitation of the water content, makes the membranes inside the lemon, as well as the hard pithy skin outside, softer and easier to slice and squeeze. Now that we’ve revealed this secret it makes complete sense, right? Try it out with all your favorite citrus fruits and let us know if it works as well for you.
Try freezing your lemons in the first place to maximize their juice yield
Again, this tip is to a large degree based on common sense and a touch of science. The rationale being that as we all know when water freezes it turns to ice which will expand the membranes that we keep referencing so much. At the very least, this action will undoubtedly make the fruits more delicate and fragile so that when you do put them into the microwave to utilize trick number two on our list, they will break down even more quickly and produce more significant quantities of zesty juice.
Of course, this definitely isn’t the quickest or the most practical recommendation as it does take time to freeze a lemon in the first place. That said, it’s certainly a great way of ensuring that your fresh citrus fruits if you’re not regularly eating and juicing them, can be stored for prolonged periods without perishing. It also has to be said that this method does yield a significant amount of extra juice if you are attempting to extract manually.
Invest in a specific juicing tool like a hand-held press
We’re not necessarily advocating that you spend a lot of money on an electric juice extractor, but you can certainly get plenty of juice from a lemon even if you are using a reliable hand-held press. These are also relatively inexpensive and widely available to purchase. All you then need to worry about is slicing your lemon with a sharp knife, putting into your press and you guessed it, giving it a good squeeze!
If you are a lover of juicing you might want to consider a dedicated, free-standing model
This type of uni-tasker (and by that we mean that you can only really use it to press your citrus fruits) might seem a little excessive to some of you. However, if you are a very regular and frequent juicer, and in particular love your citrus based juices, then it might work out to be a good investment over time. One thing is for sure, it will definitely deliver the maximum amount of juice from your lemons with the minimum amount of effort required from you. Hopefully we’ve revealed some new and interesting tips on how to get the most juice out of your lemon that you weren’t aware of before today.