Kitchen Hacks: Peel an Orange and Squeeze a Lemon Mess Free
Shandra Martinez
| 2 min read
Sometimes, it feels like even your fruit bowl is making life difficult. Take an orange, for example. You grab one for a snack. You try to peel it, but the thick skin jams under your thumbnail. You might even get the indignity of a squirt of orange juice right in the eye. And now you’ve got an orange that’s getting mushy, and still not ready to eat. What’s a fruit lover to do?
Check out our video for this easy kitchen hack to peel an orange perfectly. First, you’ll need a cutting board and a sharp knife. Using the knife, slice off both ends of the orange. Sit the orange cut-side up and, using the knife, cut halfway into the orange, top to bottom. Then, using both hands, open up and unroll the orange accordion-style.
Once the orange is opened up, peel off the individual segments until you have a nice little pile of orange slices. You can snack on them straight up or toss the segments together with some grapes and berries. Drizzle on some honey and sprinkle on some cinnamon and you’ve got a fresh fruit salad – without once getting squirted in the face.
Juicing a fresh lemon is also one of those things that sounds easy – until you try it. Juice can squirt everywhere, those pesky little seeds end up exactly where you don’t want them, and using an old-fashioned lemon juicer leaves you with kitchen gadgets to clean up. All for just a little juice.
Check out our video for this easy kitchen hack that shows you the trick to no-mess lemon juicing. First, start with a fresh lemon and a cutting board or countertop. Don’t use lemons that are old or starting to feel dry or hard. You likely won’t get good juice from them. Pressing down with one hand, roll the lemon back and forth on a clean surface 10 to 15 times. This helps the inside of the lemon get ready to release its juice.
Next, using the tip of a sharp paring knife or the sharp point of a skewer, poke it into one end of the lemon, making a hole. Then hold the lemon over a small container, hole-side down. Squeeze the lemon until all the juice has been emptied into the container. Each lemon contains about 4 tablespoons of juice.
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Photo credit: Getty Images
