My current orange/lemon juicer
You know by now that I love kitchen gadgetry. (Such people are called “kitchen geeks” and often have cluttered cabinets.) Recently I wrote about my new jade orange juicer that’s identical to the one used by my mother in her 1940s kitchen. But if you google “orange juicers,” you know there are a lot of budding Thomas Edisons trying to build a better mousetrap (or, at least, a better orange trap).
Tips from Karen’s California Kitchen
When Karen, my friend from California, was here for Thanksgiving, I learned a lot watching her move smoothly about my kitchen. (I admire that ability in others; I don’t move smoothly about my own kitchen.) She brought along a few kitchen items, including her baking scale for weighing all ingredients and her citrus press, aka, heavy-duty-single-press-lemon squeezer. My daughter got one after having seen Karen use it during a visit with her in California. The vintage-style device squeezes (manually), de-seeds, and pours the juice from a side spout. It’s all quite an efficient process.
Karen cut the orange into chunks and put them into the metal basket
The seeds are retained and the juice flows from the side spout
America’s Test Kitchen Weighs In
The citrus squeezer is available on eBay, which is the only place I could find the variety that Karen recommended. The cost is about $28, so you have to decide if it’s worth the price to be able to play happily with oranges and lemons. But America’s Test Kitchen tested a couple dozen manual varieties from reamers, to squeezers, to presses—not including Karen’s favorite. They gave the nod to Chefn’ Fresh Force, that allegedly produces 20% more juice than the conventional handhelds, lessens hand fatigue, and sells for about $19. (See photo below)
My daughter has used both varieties and prefers Karen’s choice. Whichever you go with, you’ll find the more appealing kitchen gadgets you have, the easier it is to get kids and bystanders to join in the work fun.
