Simple trick to get more juice from a lemon squeezer

Here's Alan Graham's trick for getting more juice from a lemon squeezer: cross-cut the lemon.

What will happen this time is the lemon will collapse outward as you squeeze it, more surface area in contact with the juicer as the lemon is not able to hold its shape in the peel. With less resistance against the pressure of the juicer, basically there is nowhere for the juice to hide!

• [TimmoWarner]

  In this case, make sure to read the original article for specifics!

• [Ian Wood]

  I can honestly say that I have gotten all the available juice from every lemon I’ve squeezed just by…using the squeezer. How much more juice could I get? None more juice.

  • [awjt]

    but you didn’t get the joooooooooooouice

• [awjt]

  I also know a way to get blood out of a turnip.

  • [Alan Graham]

    Do tell…am very interested in turnip blood.

  • [Just_Ok]

    The trick is getting it in there in the first place.

    • [awjt]

      For me, work puts it in there.

• [Alan Graham]

  At $.50 a lemon I want every single drop. In addition to getting more juice, it also makes it easier to squeeze, so for people who might have less strength in their hands or arthritis, etc…it works pretty slick. 

• [Jonathan Roberts]

  It also helps if you microwave the lemon for a few seconds to make it softer.

  • [Alan Graham]

    Good idea…this is why I roll it against the counter first as well.

    • [mccrum]

       Interestingly enough, neither of these works on it’s own.  However, rolling then microwaving for 20 seconds greatly increases the amount of juice (Wolke found a 26% increase in his tests).

      http://www.iloveballito.com/food/item/lime-the-taste-of-summer.html

• [atteSmythe]

  I have that knife! Good knives.

  I’ve wondered how well those squeezy-juicer things work. I use a wooden hand reamer – I’m sure it takes longer, but there is no juice left to be had when I’m done with that poor, poor citrus fruit.

• [Bashtarle]

  I’m going to call the inevitable lawsuit resulting from the unlawful aftermarket lemon modifications. Clearly these are in violation the lemons EULA. 

  Causing the lemon to function in a capacity not intended (in this case producing nominally more juice) is tantamount to theft!

  ……. I think the saddest part is a lawsuit along those lines wouldn’t surprise me ~.~

• [silkox]

  Shouldn’t the title read “Get more juice from a lemon by using this weird old trick”?

• [spejic]

  You lika the juice? Da juice isa good? This a getta more juice.

• [efergus3]

  A 5lb. sledge hammer works for me – and it’s FUN!

• [Zod]

  “No No Weez’in th Joo-oouce”
  bonus point for knowing the reference movie!

• [tyger11]

  C’mon, everybody knows Encino Man!

• [Mike Johnson]

  Before I squeeze a lemon, I roll it around on the counter, applying moderate pressure. It seems like I get a lot more juice that way. If a lemon doesn’t seem totally exhausted I pop it inside out and resqueeze. When I’m making a pitcher of whiskey sours, I need all the juice I can get.

  And hey, Dave’s Gourmet. I’m a happy customer of their pasta sauces, which are carried at my local Vons. The masala marinara is good, and the butternut squash is terrific. The garlic and basil is the best tomato sauce I’ve ever had that wasn’t made from scratch (and better than most of the from-scratch sauces I’ve had.) But seriously, the butternut squash sauce, you could thin it down and serve it as a soup and people would rave. I used to buy butternut squash ravioli, and they were never as interesting as handmade. But with that butternut sauce all you need is some basic cheese tortellini. Lordy, it’s good.

  • [Alan Graham]

    Thanks for the kind words. We always try to make something out of the ordinary and of the best quality.