Juicing Citrus: Squeeze Out Every Last Drop With These 10 Tips
Fresh citrus juice is the best for cooking, baking, and mixing drinks of all types. Plus, they need all kinds of amazing health benefits. Citrus juices are full of vitamin C, a natural system booster. They even have antioxidants, which are helpful in preventing and combating cancer, a heart condition, and degenerative diseases.
However, using some citrus juicers is not the easiest thing within the world to try to do. In fact, it is often positively frustrating. When handling citrus, like lemons, juicing is often incredibly messy. Additionally, it’s difficult to get all the juice out of them and not everywhere your hands, but if you would like to urge the foremost out of your citrus fruit—and your money—as possible, here are a couple of kitchen tricks to make sure you never waste any.
1. Pick the proper Fruit
A big aspect of success juicing citrus is picking the proper ones. Go for the large, plump, and firm citrus. They’re going to be the simplest to squeeze and therefore the most rewarding. They ought to be bright with no hints of green. For example, any green color on the lemon suggests it’s unripe, while a paler color of yellow suggests an older lemon which can have less juice.
2. Freeze ‘Em
Juicing citrus is far easier if you freeze them first, cause the juices within to expand. This breaks down the cell walls of the lemon. When it thaws, it’ll be softer and easier to squeeze. Now, you would like to allow them to thaw before you really juice them, but you will be glad you probably did it.
3. Bring Citrus to temperature
Letting citrus reach temperature before juicing significantly increases the juice yield. Allow your citrus to take a seat out for a minimum of half-hour (or until room temperature).
4. Microwave Citrus for a couple of Seconds Before Juicing
Microwaving citrus for about 10 seconds before juicing, and therefore the results looked convincing. The method is analogous to rolling the fruit, but because microwaves pass all the way through the fruit and excite the water molecules within the flesh, you get an identical effect without having to roll the fruit around first.
5. Roll Lemons and Limes On the Countertop Before Slicing
This one’s a classic, rolling the citrus on a firm countertop before trying to juice it’ll break the membranes around the capsules within the fruit’s flesh that hold all of the juice.
6. What if you just need a drop?
If just a couple of drops of juice are needed, pierce the skin with a toothpick and squeeze out what you would like. To store it, reinsert the toothpick, put the lemon or lime into a bag, and refrigerate.
7. Cut Length, Not Width
To get the foremost juice out of your citrus, try cutting the fruit down the length, instead of the width. This will leave more area within the fruit. Cutting it down the length also makes the citrus easier to grip and squeeze.
8. Use a fork.
If all else fails and you’re convinced there’s still juice to be had, try twisting the citrus segment around a fork. The times will help to interrupt open any remaining bits of pulp.
9. Just Buy Citrus juicers
Okay, tricks and hacks are great, but there is a point where you only need to stop and obtain the proper tool for the work. If you’ve got access annually to abundant citrus, consider purchasing citrus juicers.
10. Correctly store fresh-squeezed fruit juice
Fresh squeezed juice stores well within the refrigerator for about 3 weeks. Use frozen juice within 12 months for the best taste. If I even have an outsized amount of juice to store, I put the juice in cube trays and freeze for later use.