MARTHA STEWART - Whether you are baking, cooking, or mixing up a cocktail, knowing how to juice a lemon properly can make a big difference. The humble yellow fruit might not seem complicated, but factors like temperature, storage, variety, and even the way you cut it can all impact how much juice you get.
We're sharing how to pick, prep, and juice lemons for maximum yield—plus which tools work best, and which tricks are worth skipping. We spoke with two experts, one has decades of research into lemon varieties and cellular structure, and the other teaches students how to handle citrus in a professional kitchen. Their advice will help you learn how to get the most juice out of every lemon.
Start With a Good Lemon
Juicing starts with selection. According to Tracy Kahn, Ph.D, curator of the Citrus Variety Collection at the University of California, Riverside, the fresher the lemon, the juicier it is likely to be. “If it’s been sitting in cold storage or traveled a long way, it may have lost some moisture through the peel,” she says.