:: time saving juicing tip ::

Cut once, press once. Instead of cutting in half 50:50, cutting 90:10 such that the 10% is mostly shell, and the 90% displays the beginning of the citrus segments and thus most of the juice bounty.


This does not seem to work as well with limes on this juicer (shell is too small and tough), but for lemons and oranges, it reduces the pressing time and effort in half. Grapefruits are just too large to even attempt this maneuver. We used to do a very similar thing at Russell House Tavern that involved making an X with two cuts on the side of the citrus; however, the citrus had a tendency to roll off of our press when attempted on this juicer. When I posted this on Facebook, there was concern from one bartender that it put too much stress on the machine; I countered that there was very little difference between a half lemon and 90% of a lemon in strength (just increase in resistance time/distance); it seemed that there was more stress when juicing 90% of a lime due to the shell integrity though. Another was concerned with the efficiency of the technique, and for lemons and oranges, there was about the same amount of pulp and spent pulp in the shell afterwards; for limes, the shell collapsed inward making it harder to assess. Bartender Ciaran Wiese tacked on the pointer, "Make a shallow cut to the open end of the lemon, it saves the press from ripping the citrus."