Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Works For Me Wednesday: The best way to zest citrus

For the longest time I used to use my smallest cheese grater to zest citrus. One day a couple years ago, my sister was watching me zest a lemon and told me about her microplaner (sometimes called a rasp), and how great it was, blah, blah, blah. At first I wasn't interested (silly, silly me). I had a system and it worked fine, thanks. Then I bought a whole bag of lemons with the intention of juicing and zesting them all and freezing everything to have on-hand for later. It was an experiment. It sort of worked. Anyway, about half way through zesting I called my sister and begged to borrow her microplaner.

Have you ever finally found the right tool to do something, and the first time you use it you're sure you hear angels singing? Or you want to jump up and down because it's so wonderful? Or both? Yeah, this was like that. I couldn't believe how much easier it was to remove just the zest and leave the bitter pith behind. It was a bonus that I no longer scraped my fingers on the cheese grater.

I promptly told my husband that I wanted one for Mother's Day, which he thought was great because then he didn't have to come up with an idea. A win-win that definitely worked (and still works) for me! Thanks, Honey!

4 comments:

  1. Did the freezing of the zest work? If so, anything specific that I should know about the process. I just bought a bunch of Meyer Lemons and would love to save the zest as well as the juice!

    I will be buying the micro-planer!

    Thank you!

    Deb

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  2. Hi Deb! Yes, freezing the zest worked, after a fashion. I didn't used it fast enough and it got freezer burn. It probably lasted 3 months before it got yucky. I'm sure there is a better way to package it than what I did (put it in a zip bag), but I haven't experimented since. Also, when I measured it out I used double the amount called for because the frozen zest was stiff and didn't fill the measuring spoon like fresh zest would. Good luck with your Meyer lemons, they are super yummy :)

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  3. I was wondering the same thing about the freezing! Did you try spreading the zest out on a cookie sheet and freezing it that way before putting into the ziploc bags? I'm wondering if that would make it easier to use when you took it out.

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  4. Hi Wendy :) I didn't try spreading it out on a cookie sheet...I just threw it in the bag. It actually was OK to use, it just didn't last as long as I would have liked (though maybe 3 months is great and I had unreasonable ideas about how long it would last). I think for longer storage it would need to be sealed up in smaller amounts by a food-sealer machine like a Food Saver. I think my sister has one...man, she has all the cool toys ;)

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