Lemon Juice...
Ten practical tips to get the most juice from your lemons
Ok, so you’re here to get this done as simply and easily as you can, right? Good, so whether you’re cooking with them or making cocktails, the practical method of extracting as much of their juicy innards as possible remains the same.
It all comes down to 3 factors:
- Buying the juiciest lemons;
- Breaking down the internal structure of the fruit before juicing;
- And how effectively you perform the physical act of squishing and squeezing your lemon – with our without a tool or juicer.
Shop our exclusive designs on Red Bubble
Buying the juiciest lemons
Something to bear in mind is that citrus fruit do not ripen once they’re picked, they’re not like bananas or mangos for instance. So when you’re selecting them from the grocers or supermarket, it’s a given that they’re ripe – the only thing you need to worry about is making sure they’re as fresh and juicy as possible.
Tip #1: Look for the right type of lemon
You’re not always going to know what type you’re buying but if you can find out (the store should know and sometimes it’s on the label) then you can make an informed decision from the start.
- Meyer, although not a pure lemon (they’re a natural hybrid between a lemon and an orange) are the juiciest, though they can also be quite pricey.
- Fino, Primofiori, or Lapithkiotiki (from the Mediterranean) are all really juicy varieties.
- Whilst Femminello, Interdonato, and Verna are all low in juice.
Tip #2: Check the skin
There are a few things to look out for here:
- Although lemon’s look nice when they have a heavily dimpled, thick peel, if you’re after more juice then you should be choosing the ones that have a smooth, finely textured skin.
- And from a freshness perspective you’re looking for blemish free rinds, with no soft spots or wrinkles. When you (gently) squeeze them they should feel uniformly soft and tender, but not squishy. They should also have a strong, sweet smell.
Tip #3: Feel their weight
The juiciest fruits are the heaviest, so if you hold two lemons of the same size, the heaviest is going to give you the most juice!
Breaking down the internal structure
Here we’re looking at methods that help us tenderize and break down as much of the flesh and internal structure as possible, before we open the lemon up and start squeezing it.
Tip #4: Roll your lemons
Grab your lemon and roll it on your kitchen counter with the palm of your hand until it starts to soften up. Give it a decent amount of pressure – you don’t want the skin to split, but you do want to press it hard enough against the surface to burst the membranes inside.
Tip #5: Heat them up
There are quite a few ways we can add a bit of heat to our lemons and make the flesh inside that little bit more tender:
- First off, simply leave them out at room temperature for an hour or so. If you’ve had them in the fridge, the cold temperature will have caused the membranes to constrict and harden.
- For a touch more heat, drop them into a bowl of warm water for a few minutes. The water should be warm enough for you to feel the heat through the sides of the bowl, but not boiling. Leave them in for a couple of mins but make sure the water doesn’t have time to cool down too much.
- Or you can take it to the next level and… nuke ‘em. Pop them in the microwave for 10-20 seconds. The water molecules excite, make the flesh softer and the membranes are easier to burst. You can put them in whole or in halves – though keeping them whole prevents any moisture escaping until you cut into them. On that note, be careful when you do this – if you’ve over done it at all, the lemon can have a tendency to shoot burning hot steam at you. So be careful! And bear in mind that if they’re that hot, then then the lovely juice that you’re after is now starting to evaporate. Fail.
Tip #6: Freeze them!
If you’ve got the time or you’re planning ahead for that upcoming Tiki party, get your citrus fruit into the freezer and let science take all the hard work out of it for you. As the temperature drops, the water inside the lemon expands, weakening and breaking the membranes.
Then when you come to juicing, simply remove from the freezer and pop into the microwave for 30-60 seconds until soft and warm again. Not only is this a great way to get extra juice, but it also helps keep your lemons fresher for longer.
Juicing your lemons
You don’t need an electric juicer to get the most liquid out of your lemons, but it does help to have a tool of some description – be it a reamer, a fork or even a spoon. It also helps to cut your fruit the right way.
Tip #7: Cut your lemons correctly
Rather than cutting down the middle of the lemon (with the two tips to your left and right), slice the lemon lengthways, tip to tip (the longer cut). This creates a larger surface area and exposes more of the pulp, ensuring the juice is less likely to become trapped behind the thicker layers of flesh.
Tip #8: If you’ve no juicer or reamer, use a fork or a spoon
After cutting the lemon in half, if you’ve a fork to hand, insert its tines into one half of the lemon and squeeze with your hand. Once the juice has started to slow, move the fork to another position and squeeze again. Rinse and repeat until all the juice has been extracted.
What you’re doing here is applying pressure to the membranes by trapping them between the fork and your hand, using the sharp edges to rupture them. Exactly the same principle is applied when using a reamer.
The same can be said for using a spoon. Simply insert into the lemon half and press vigorously against the inside of the flesh, breaking the membranes and squeezing out the juice.
Tip #9: Err… use a juicing tool
If you’ve got a hand held juice press (also known as a Mexican citrus press), there are a few things you can do to make the most if it:
- Slice the lemon lengthways, as mentioned above.
- Cut the tips off of the ends of the lemon so it fits better into the juicer’s rounded shape.
- Place the lemon flesh side down and squeeze – then for those extra few drops, turn the squished lemon over so it’s skin side down and squeeze again.
- If I’m feeling EXTRA thrifty, sometimes I put aside my squeezed lemon halves and when I’m done with the batch I’ll pop them back into the juicer two at a time and give them a final squeeze. To be honest it does work, a little, but it’s more a sense of knowing, There. Is. No. More. Juice. Left. At ALL.
Tip #10: Use a food processor
A good hack for juicing a large batch of lemons, with no juicer and minimal effort:
- Fit your dough blade to the processor.
- Rinse your lemons, cut off both ends (the tips) and slice each lemon into 4 pieces (it doesn’t matter what shape).
- Tip all the fruit slices into the food processor and turn it on for a minute or two. This is going to smush your lemons to pieces (and yes, smush is a word!)
- Once all the rinds have been stripped of flesh, turn it all out into a sieve or food strainer and push through with the back of a spoon. If you’ve no strainer to hand, use a muslin or cheesecloth and get all up close and manual with it.
And that’s it, job done! The only thing left to do is use your lemon juice in some lovely cocktails. Even if you’re cooking there’s no excuse, I’m sure you’ll have a little left over for a Bahama Mama 😉
We put a whole lotta love, lime and rum into our work, so if you think your friends would find this article useful, we’d be thrilled if you could share it with them!
Thank you. Mahalo.
