Paring knife: Mercer Culinary M22003 Millennia 3.5-Inch Paring Knife ($6 at Amazon) How to Use Lemon Zest And if you don’t know what to do with it…keep reading! You should end up with a thin strip of zest, and just like with our peeler option, you can call it a day here or chop and mince it into a million pieces for your recipe. This isn’t a downward motion into the lemon it’s more of a skim across the top to try to peel off the outermost layer of the rind.
Remember that we’re trying to avoid peeling off that bitter white pith with the rind, so hold the blade with as much control as you can and glide it across the skin in a very thin cut.Brace the thumb of your knife-wielding hand against the fruit and press the blade at a severe angle against the skin.Hold the lemon in your nondominant hand and the knife in the other.If you’re not used to using a paring knife, (please!) be careful not to let it slip across the lemon and into your unsuspecting fingers or palm.
Paring knifeīest for: When you don’t have any of these other tools Vegetable peeler: Spring Chef Premium Swivel Vegetable Peeler ($9 at Amazon) 4. Your pieces of rind won’t be nearly as small or uniform, but it’s close enough and it’ll do the trick in a pinch when you don’t happen to have a microplane. You can stop right here and toss that rind into a soup for it to steep or you can place it onto a cutting board and mince it into tiny pieces to (sorta) replicate the effect you’d get from a microplane. You should be left with a thin strip of zest, sans pith. Lay the sharp part of the peeler against the lemon with your other hand and gently pull it toward you.Of all these tools, we’re willing to bet you’re most familiar with a vegetable peeler and bonus points: It’s a safer option than a paring knife as it gives you much more control. Tip: Instead of getting short pieces from the side of the lemon, turn the fruit as you zest it to get a long curlicue.Ĭitrus zester: OXO Good Grips Citrus Zester and Channel Knife ($9 at Amazon) 3. Press the blade down into the rind and drag it across the fruit toward your thumb.Hold the lemon in the palm of your nondominant hand and the zester by the handle in your other.Using a zester will give you long, thin pieces of zest-like the kind you want for that adult beverage. Zesters are easy and intuitive to use, so don’t worry if you’ve never worked with one before. If it has several, it might look like an itty-bitty (very sharp) rake.
Citrus zesterĬitrus zesters are similar to vegetable peelers but with one slight difference: Instead of having one long vertical blade, a zester has one very short, slightly hooked blade or a few of them. Microplane: Microplane 46120 Premium Zester ($13 at Amazon) 2. Some of the rind will fall from underneath the microplane, so it makes sense to do this over a plate or bowl, but a lot of it will be stuck to the microplane’s underside, so check there if you’re like, Wait, where’s all my zest? And stay away from that pith while you’re at it!