How To Juice Citrus Fruits | Citrus Juice Recipes

All of us must have heard of citrus fruits before

But do you know any other citrus fruits besides oranges?

Here is a long list but they don't include all of them:

1) Navel Oranges

2) Mandarin Oranges

3) Lime

4) Desert Lime

5) Kaffir Limes

6) Lemons

7) Grapefruit

8) Pomelos

9) Citrons

10) Kumquats

Of course there is an even longer list of citrus fruits including hybrid citrus fruits that you can search for online.

But there is so much more to citrus fruits. They are found in almost all parts of the world...

Countries like US, China, India and Brazil are major producers of some of the world's most common citrus fruits.

The USA produces a lot of grapefruits. China grows a lot of mandarin oranges; perfect for the Chinese New Year, India produces a lot of lime while Brazil produces a lot of oranges. A lot of other countries around the world cultivate citrus fruits for the purpose of cooking, medicines, alternative medicines, perfumes and even cosmetics.

Generally, citrus trees can grow all year round with the exception of temperatures becoming too cold. They usually bloom during early winter. In spring, green fruits begin to show up and when summer comes, citrus fruits mature and fall. Some citrus fruits do not depend on summer to mature like lemons and lime.

1) Slice your orange in half with a knife.

2) Take one orange half and then press an orange reamer into the centre of your orange. Use the conical part of the reamer

3) While doing this, use your other hand to squeeze the orange half while you rotate the orange reamer in the centre half of the orange.

4) Get a container or a bowl to collect the orange juice.

This step is easy to do but it will not extract all the orange juice and pulp out.

Once juiced, drink it immediately as they are fresh and has the most amount of nutrients, minerals and flavonoid content.

This cheap handheld citrus juicer is one of the cheapest and most effective around. I would highly recommend using it. You don't need expensive ones as this works really well unless of course you prefer something electric then this is not for you..

Check it out!

1. Microwaving Your Lemons or Oranges or Citrus Fruits first. Although the theory behind this is not fully scientifically explained. Several explanations suggests that microwaving softens the membranes and excites water molecules so that as you slice through a fruit, more juice comes out
2. Rolling Them. I have not tried doing this on larger citrus fruits but rolling on grapefruit or lemon does increase juice yield. The reason behind this is the membranes will be broken, which releases more juice and hence a better juice yield
3. Freeze then Microwave Method. I haven't tried this before but there are people who says that the process of cooling and sudden reheating does pretty much the same thing as breaking up the membranes and then releasing more citrus juice.

If you want to use a squeezer instead, use it for smaller citrus fruits like a lemon or lime.

I would recommend getting a sturdier squeezer, preferably one made of aluminum or stainless steel. it is also better to get a geared hinge squeezer.

1) First, cut your lemon in half. If your lemon or lime has an irregular surface on the top or a know, cut it as this will improve juicing results.

2) Place a bowl underneath the squeezer before you start.

3) Place the lemon with the cut section facing the inner part of the squeezer

4) Now, squeeze it up to your hearts content!

Seriously, using a squeezer to juice citrus fruits is a no brainer. It is dead simple..

Chef'n FreshForce Citrus Juicer

There are hundreds of these products online but what makes this one so special?

It is mainly due to the extra gear mechanism that gives you extra squeezing force. It is also very durable and outlasts most of the expensive ones in the market. It is also very ergonomical and easy to use.

Check it out!

If you prefer something motorized without using any muscle work then these selection of citrus juicers will do the job for you.

Zesting 101

Some of you may not know what zesting is. Basically, it means that you are scraping the outer layers of the skin of a fruit. In this case, any citrus fruit. The usual choices include lemon, lime and orange.

Typically, this is done in Western cooking to enhance the flavour of savoury or sweet dish as the peels of orange or lemon contain high amounts of oil that gives that added "zest" to your dish! Zesting is not done all the time. You will find that recipes tend to use this technique more often when baking.

How to Zest Citrus Fruits?

You will need a special tool called a zester to do the job properly. Some zesters are multipurpose while some are specifically designed for zesting lemon. You may not want to get too fancy with the tools and choose to use just one type of zester.

a) Before you start zesting, clean the outer layer of your fruit with water or even soap.

b) Pat dry with a paper towel and then start zesting!

Tools that you can use to zest fruits include: Box grater and a zester

(image taken from Flickr, CC)

OXO Good Grips Lemon Zester

This Good Grips Lemon Zester from OXO is the perfect tool for the best lemon zesting experience. It has great grip, zests extremely well and ha superb durability compared. Its slip proof construction means that it is perfectly safe to use it while zesting. The stainless steel blades are sharp enough and creates a very even consistency from zesting.

Trust me, you won't be disappointed with it

Be Warned...

This recipe is citrusy but really delicious and easy to make.

Ingredients

4-5 oranges

4-grapefruits

1-2 apples

Instructions Juice all of them together. You may need to use a juicer for this. The mixture of apples and citrus fruits make it a well balanced juice. Otherwise you will get an incredibly citrusy juice. You may substitute the apples for lemon if you prefer that.

For this recipe you will need:

Ingredients

1) 4 oranges

2) 1 lemon

3) 2-3 slices of pineapple

Instructions: Juice all of them together and drink them immediately! This recipe serves up to 3 people.