Lemon juice is a key ingredient in countless recipes, from savory dishes such as avgolemono and Chicken Francese to desserts like lemon posset, lemon bars, and Lemon Pudding Cakes, to, of course, lemonade.
Cooking Tips
You Could Be Getting More Juice from Your Lemons
Here are six tricks that will help you make the most of your sunny citrus.
By Published July 1, 2024.
As we’ve squeezed plenty of lemons in the test kitchen over the years, we’ve learned a few tricks to make sure you get as much juice out of the fruit as possible.
Here are six tips to help you make the most of your lemons.
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1. Buy Thin-Skinned Lemons
Most lemons at the supermarket come in just two varieties. Lisbon lemons are often characterized by slightly smoother skin, a rounder shape, and a flatter stem end, while Eureka lemons are frequently distinguished by a more elliptical shape and knobs at both ends. No matter the variety, the most important trait to look for is fruit that gives under pressure, which indicates a thin skin and pith. We found that fruits that gave under pressure contained on average 8 percent more of their weight in juice (about 2.5 teaspoons per lemon) than those that felt rock hard.
Don’t be concerned if the skin is green. In our tests, as long as they were thin-skinned, lemons with a greenish cast had as much juice as their more uniformly yellow counterparts, and they did not taste more tart.
2. Store Whole Lemons Sealed in a Bag in the Fridge
To keep lemons as juicy as possible, store them chilled—and protect them from air. Unwrapped lemons start to lose their moisture after about a week in the refrigerator, but we found that they’ll stay in perfect condition for up to four weeks when sealed in a single-use or reusable zipper-lock bag.
3. But Don’t Juice Cold Lemons
Room-temperature lemons are much more yielding and thus easier to squeeze than cold lemons. To quickly take the chill off a cold lemon, microwave it until it is warm to the touch.
4. Roll Lemons Before Juicing
We found that rolling a lemon on a hard surface makes it easier to juice because it softens the membrane and tears the juice sacs.
5. Use a Press-Style Juicer
In our tests, reamer-style juicers collected 30 percent less juice on average than our top-performing press style.
6. Cut Better Lemon Wedges
If you want to cut your lemon into wedges for spritzing into iced tea or over seafood, use our preferred method. It provides you with more surface area to grasp the wedge, so you can press the lemon more firmly to extract more juice; makes it easier to dispose of the seeds; and allows the juice to flow out of the wedge more cleanly. Here’s how you do it.
1. Trim both ends of lemon. Cut lemon in half lengthwise.
2. Flat side down, cut each half into wedges.
3. Trim each wedge along its inside ridge to get rid of all the central pith.