Ways to Juice a Lemon
Cut the lemon lengthwise. Cut the lemon in half, from tip to tip. This makes a more flexible lemon peel, easier to squeeze. If you have a hinge-style hand juicer cut them crosswise instead for a better fit.
Place a mesh strainer over a bowl. The mesh will catch the lemon seeds and pulp, letting the juice drain through.
Squeeze with a pair of tongs. Place a lemon half between the two arms of your kitchen tongs, near the prongs, and squeeze. This is fast, easy, and doesn't fill your kitchen drawer with a one-purpose tool.
Scrape it out with a fork or spoon. This alternative requires even less specialized equipment. Hold the lemon half firmly with one hand, angling the lemon downward to avoid a squirt of juice in your face. Stick a fork or spoon in the pulp and rotate it around the lemon. Repeat until very little pulp remains. A fork will let you scrape out the last bits of pulp, getting more juice from each lemon. But if you're juicing a whole pile of lemons, pick the spoon for a faster job. If you only want a few drops of lemon juice to flavor a dish, just stick the fork in a whole lemon and squeeze. The rest of the lemon will stay good for much longer than a cut half.
Use a manual juicer. These cheap tools speed up the job a little and are a bit less messy. Find one made from wood, plastic, or enameled aluminum, since the bare metal will gradually corrode if exposed to citric acid. They come in three varieties: A hand juicer sits over your bowl, with a ridged knob sticking up. Press the lemon half down and rotate several times around the knob. Squeeze to the edge of the skin to get all the juice. A reamer has an identical knob, attached to a handle instead. Hold the lemon half in one hand and rotate the reamer around the lemon. A hinged squeezer is the fastest, but only when juicing lemons that fit nicely into your model. Cut off the knobby tip if present, then place your lemon half face-down in the cup. Hold over the bowl and press the other arm hard against the lemon, turning it inside out.
Buy an electric citrus juicer for large quantities. An all-purpose juicer will put a great deal of bitter pith in your juice, and its metal blades may corrode over time. Buy a specialized citrus juicer for better results. If using an all-purpose juicer, peel the lemon first or wash it thoroughly to remove trace pesticides. Many experts agree that hand-squeezed juice tastes better, possibly because an electric machine scrapes away too much pith, or fails to break out flavorful oils from the peel.
Maximizing Juice and Speed
Pick juicy lemons. Smaller lemons have a higher percentage of juice, so select these if buying lemons by weight or juicing a large number. Avoid rough-skinned lemons, which may have shriveled and lost juice as they aged. When shopping, heft two similarly-sized lemons, one in each hand. The heavier one has more juice. Meyer is the most common extra-juicy variety, but some areas will stock Fino, Primofiori, or Lapithkiotiki from the Mediterranean. Varieties low in juice include Femminello, Interdonato, and Verna.
Store lemons in the freezer. When plants freeze, their water expands into ice crystals and ruptures the cell walls. Once thawed in the microwave or a 15-minute cold water bath, all that water trapped inside those cells will be ready to add to your juice. Wash and dry the lemons before freezing in an airtight container. Fresh lemons will retain quality for at least four weeks in the freezer.
Microwave the lemons before cutting. A warm lemon is easier to squeeze, and some say it even produces more juice. Zap the lemons for 10–20 seconds, or a few seconds more if frozen, until soft and slightly warm to the touch. This weakens the material that holds the juice, and causes the juice to flow more easily. This works especially well on older lemons or lemon varieties with thick skins. If the fruit is steaming, you've gone too far and boiled away some of the juice.
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