This post earlier today on a trick for juicing key limes leads us to a broader question: What is the best way to juice a lemon?
I have so many juicers in my kitchen. I love lemon juice in just about anything, and lime juice too, especially in the summers. I love my vintage Jadeite juicers and the heavy-duty orange juice squeezer I got for my wedding. But I have to admit that I come back over and over again to this flimsy-looking plastic juicer that was left to me by a roommate.
I thought I would use something more substantial more regularly, something prettier. But this thing works so well that it's almost never put away. The lemon fits into the cap, as you can see, and you can twist this cap to really extract juice and even scrape out the lemon flesh. The strainer also catches most of the seeds. I love it, and I use it almost every day.
What do you use for juicing lemons, and why?
Related: How Do You Grate a Lemon?
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I have my mom's old aluminum one from the 50s, but just the other day I used my trusty, old, cheapo cast (metal something) one from the Mexican grocery. I just cut the lemons in smaller pieces to fit, and it did a GREAT job. That's the one I'll be using from now on!
America's Test Kitchen once had a video about how slicing a lemon from tip-to-tip produces much more juice than slicing it across it's middle. Then they just juiced it on one of those typical juicers.
I just use a very basic handheld juicer. I'm sure there are other tools that do the job better, but this isn't the type of gadget I'm willing to sacrifice significant space in my kitchen cabinets to store.
I try to catch the seeds as I'm juicing, but sometimes I'll just pick them out by hand.
Ooh, where can we find one of these pitchers?
I use a lemon lime squeezer like the one in the link below, that I got at Williams-Sonoma. It fits both lemons and limes and catches the pips
http://www.kaboodle.com/reviews/2-in-1-lemon-lime-squeezer-8720
http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/sku7662000/index.cfm?pkey=cfruit%2Dvegetable%2Dtools&ckey=fruit%2Dvegetable%2Dtools
AT, the Amana ad is seriously hijacking my computer and not letting me click around your site with much ease. Every time I've tried to click the photo of the strawberry chocolate patty, I've got the Amana site popping up in another window. I'll come back and browse once I see the ad is gone... not cool...
@KrapArtist - I've had the same problem with the Amana ad. If you click on the close button embedded in the ad on the right side at the top of the page it should leave you alone. Its still frustrating though.
when I klick on the close button, it takes me to Amana... definitely not cool.
I took a few cooking courses in Thailand and all they do is slice the lemon in half and run it across a large spoon - not sure why I never thought of this! So easy, and if it's a slotted spoon you can easily scoop out the pits.
I use tongs, if I'm only using 1 or 2 lemons or limes. Actually, I very rarely juice more than 2, so I guess I can just say I use tongs.
I'm suprised more people don't do it like I do- a good old fork and my hand. That's how we always juiced lemons when I worked in restaurants. Cut in half, shove a fork in and squeeze and twist. If I was doing lots I'd put a small strainer over the cup I was juicing in to catch seeds, otherwise catch them with the hand holding the lemon. Cheap and easy- everyones got a fork!
when i just need a squeeze and don't need to get ALL the juice out at once, i slip the lemon half into a plastic mesh bag like cherry tomatoes or onions come in (from Trader Joes, especially) and squeeze - no seeds and all you have to do is rinse the bag so it doesn't get sticky...i just keep it in my utensil drawer. i also have a wooden handheld citrus reamer that was $4.
right on, jmorri26! Fork all the way!
I have that exact same juicer and I love it too! I think I bought it at Big Lots....LOVE IT!
I used a wooden lemon reamer.
If you microwave the lemon for 15 seconds first, you'll get more juice.
Just used a fruit juicer to juice 4 bags of limes with the skinks cut off. I would not recommend doing it this way, the result was a extra bitter due to the juicing of the seeds and the non fruit parts that were shoved into the juicer.