Some statistics about lemons

[fivemack]

A small lemon from Tesco costs 25p (£1 for four) and weighs 84 grams.

If you squeeze it, you get about 30 grams of liquid+pips, and about 25 grams of liquid, so making lemon-juice out of lemons is about 30% efficient, and lemon-juice made out of lemons bought from Tesco costs about a penny a gram; a bit more expensive than decent non-AOC cheese. Jif lemons cost 65p and contain 55ml of lemon juice, so it's cheaper to get lemons if you've already got a lemon-squeezer; a lemon-squeezer lasts forever and costs a pound and ninepence, so repays itself over buying Jif lemons after about the first pint of lemon juice.

Tesco 'fresh-squeezed lemonade' is £1.95 for a litre, and 17% lemon, so slightly more expensive than buying the lemons; on another hand, in the 'traditional home baking ingredients' part of the store you can (according to the Web site) buy 500ml of lemon juice for 97p. It's been dehydrated and reconstituted, but I don't know to what extent that spoils lemon juice.

Juice of one lemon and 25 grams of sugar, topped up in a pint glass with strong green tea and ice cubes, is a nice cooling drink for a summer day. 15 grams of sugar isn't quite enough.

Comments

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

I've recently encountered powdered lime. I've found it useful in drinking water, but I don't think it captures the full fresh flavor. Of course lime is not lemon, and there are no doubt different ways of making powder from them, which produce different results. It would probably make an adequate lemonade.

I can buy a quart bottle of lemon juice for a LOT less than I can buy enough lemons to make that much; enough less that I haven't calculated the details, or at least remembered them, though. And it keeps better, and is a lot more convenient. It, also, is not as good as the fresh thing.

I rarely squeeze fresh juice to make lemonade. I'll do it to make bourbon sours or margaritas, though I will also drink bourbon sours made with bottled juice.

[carbonel]

I assume a Jif lemon is one of those lemon-shaped containers of lemon juice. The thing about those is they keep much better, so if you have a recipe that calls for a tablespoons or two of lemon juice (for grilled fish, say), it's a lot easier to keep one of those on hand than a fresh lemon. They definitely aren't quite as good as the real thing, though.

On the other hand, if you're in the habit of making your own lemonade, it probably makes sense to keep lemons on hand.

[lnr]

How much does the sugar cost?

[fivemack.livejournal.com]

It's fancy golden caster sugar at £1.28 per kilo, so 3.2p for enough to desour one lemon; you could use generic sugar at 93p per kilo equally well.

[tau-iota-mu-c.livejournal.com]

"desour one lemon".

I understand this concept, and yet I have no idea how it works. If sour and sweet are two seperate receptors on the tongue, how can you cancel one out with the other?

[ceb.livejournal.com]

liquid and pips> stick it through a strainer, increase your efficiency.

Bought lemon juice is OK for most purposes but I'd make lemonade with fresh.

[pavanne.livejournal.com]

But bought lemon juice is so much *easier* for lemon tea/ salad dressing/ G&T. Plus I think buying glass bottles is cheaper (I buy mine for 50p for 100ml).

[aendr.livejournal.com]

A few seconds in the microwave increases the yield as well as the ease of obtaining juice from a lemon. 10-20 should do, depending on the power of the microwave and the number of lemons placed therein. If you possess an electric mixer, the citrus juicer thing on them can be good, if rather exciting when you accidentally let go of your fruit - rubber gloves recommended both for grip and maintaining your skin.

Waste not, want not. If you possess a smelly bin then a quarter lemon rind placed inside gives you nicer smells. If you possess a dishwasher a quarter lemon rind placed inside also improves the smell as well as providing potentially better grease removal. If you have a small surplus of space in your freezer try quartering then freezing the used rinds to give you a longer source of said air freshening capabilities. If you wash the rinds before you juice, quarter and freeze them, then you can also place a quarter rind into various food dishes during cooking or into tea or cola for a more lemony flavour than obtained from just using lemon juice, as you will have the lemony-ness from the skin-oils too. It is best to use unwaxed lemons for this, or to wash using washing up liquid and rinse well. Lemons are wonderful things. Have you tried my recipe for lemon cake?

[papersky.livejournal.com]

I have not had good luck with freezing quartered lemons. Is there a trick for it?

[txanne.livejournal.com]

But those little plastic lemons taste so bad! I'd rather have no lemonade than yucky lemonade. (See also my credo: "Life's too short for bad beer.")