The Spirit World

Rob the Fan recently left a comment on Robert’s Daiquiri post asking how to keep from getting too much pulp in your drink when using fresh-squeezed citrus juices. This comment gave me pause for two reasons. The first is that when I’m out and about I actually like to have a little pulp in my drink as this is the first clue that the establishment uses fresh-squeezed juice. My second thought was that I don’t really remember having a problem with too much pulp in drinks I make at home and it’s not that my tolerance for pulp is all that high. That train of thought got me thinking about juicers - especially since the tool you use affects the final result.

The most elementary juicer is simply your hands! When using just your hands, it’s best to prepare the fruit prior to slicing to get the juices running more freely. You can do this by simply rolling the fruit on your countertop or cutting board, applying decent pressure, prior to cutting. Alternatively, you can microwave the fruit for 10 - 15 seconds which is also supposed to do the trick. I have a prejudice against warm fruit juices so this is not my preferred method but don’t let that stop you from trying it!

Once the fruit has been prepared you simply slice it in half and then squeeze - either cut side up or down. Cut-side down releases more juice; cut-side up keeps seeds and pulp from escaping.

Next, you could use a juicer similar to the red one in the photo above or a reamer. There are several versions of these juicers but the Fire King is a highly collectible classic version that you may have seen at some point. Generally, using one of these could result in a lot of pulp in your juice. The little red one that I use actually has a built-in coarse strainer that catches the bulk of the pulp but allows some to flow through. The same information applies to a reamer - lots of versions available but you have less control over the pulp and how much ends up in the juice. As Robert mentioned in his response to Rob, you can always use a sieve or strainer to remove some or all of it.

The juicer shown in the center of the photo, and again at left, is great for traveling. The trick to this little tool is realizing that you squeeze the fruit opposite of how you would think! When you bring the handles together the fruit is turned inside out and every last bit of juice is squeezed out of it. It’s really quite ingenious. These come in several sizes and are often color-coded to the fruit, but I generally find that this medium size works well with most fruits.

If I have a lot of fruit to juice, then I’ll bring out a tool that makes this process easier and faster. The juicer in the back left portion of the first photo is a mini-version of the juicer you often see bolted to a counter in bars. They also come in a larger home version. With the leverage from the handle you can make short work of a stack of lemons, lime or oranges.

The other alternative is an electric juicer, shown on the right. In my arsenal, this is the only one that can really handle grapefruit well. I have a tendency to buy citrus by the bagful at Costco and don’t always use them up as fast as I anticipate. In that case I use this machine to juice batches of lemons or limes and then freeze the juice in ice-cube trays. Each cube is a 1 oz portion so it’s easy to pull out the number you need for drinks or food recipes.