How To: The Trick to Squeezing Out Every Last Bit of Juice from Lemons, Limes, & Other Citrus Fruit

Cooks both humble and great are constantly trying to figure out how to get the most juice out of lemons and limes. Why? Because they add so much freaking flavor to everything and are endlessly useful in cooking. Sometimes, it's even a matter of squeezing the most out of your money (earlier this year, the price of limes quadrupled, though it only lasted a few months).

We've already covered many techniques here on Food Hacks for getting more from citrus fruits. Some of those include using kitchen tongs to squeeze juice more easily, zesting without fancy tools, juicing without getting any seeds, and even turning a lemon into its own seed-filtering juicer.

However, it turns out that there's been a method out there courtesy of the citrus companies themselves that help you get out all the juice with no special tools at all. The trick is in how you cut that bad boy.

Special Slicing Equals More Juice

I've heard about this citrus hack before, but forgot about it until I saw a recent Reddit post by redditisforsheep (which is actually a repost of an older one by shubbard86 found here).

Simply cut away all the sides of a lime or lemon and leave an oblong in the center. Keep in mind that though the image above shows a box of grapefruit, the technique applies to all citrus fruits.

Step-by-Step Instructions—From a Real Chef

Chef Heidi Fink also gives great step-by-step instructions on how to maximize the juice a lime gives with this method.

First, hold the lime lengthwise and cut off one side, then rotate the lime a quarter turn and make another cut. Continue rotating the lime a quarter turn and making cuts until you're left with four side pieces and one long rectangular piece from the center.

Hold each of the side pieces over a shallow, wide-mouthed bowl and squeeze firmly. Thanks to this clever method, all the juice will go into the bowl. Next, hold the center piece by each end over the bowl. Then twist and wring out the juice as if you were squeezing all the water out of a wet towel.

Now you've gotten all the juice out of your lime with almost no waste, and if you're cheap like me, this thrills you to your very center. If you want to be sure that your citrus is drained dry, don't forget that you can put it in the microwave or roll it on the counter and nuke it, too.