Adventures in Lemonade

Thomas has been in love with citrus fruits lately, especially lemons. We made our first lemonade of 2010 right after the new year and then again on Super Bowl Sunday. T does a pretty good job of juicing by hand, but it's hard work! We invested in a little electric juicer this weekend and the speed and efficiency of this little tool has led to a lot of (delicious) fresh squeezed orange juice and some good discoveries:

1. Lemonade is a simple 1-1-1 ratio. Make a simple syrup by heating 1 cup of water with 1 cup of sugar until the sugar is fully dissolved. Cool the syrup then add 1 cup of lemon juice. It will be very strong at this point so add water, a cup or so at a time, until it tastes right to you.

2. Limes are a lot tarter than lemons, and less flavorful. You need less juice - about 3/4 cup to the finished 1:1 ratio simple syrup - and less water to dilute. Limes are also a bit more solid than lemons or oranges, which makes them harder to juice.

3. Orange juice needs nothing - delish straight from the juicer. We do run it through a sieve because T is not a big fan of pulp.

We also learned (via friend Audrey @flowerstrewn via @CookingLight): "Look for lemons that are heavy, give nicely when squeezed, and have a thinner rind (means more juice inside)."

In general also a warm lemon gives more juice than a cold one.

T making lemonade for the Super Bowl.
Lemon photo credit: BeautifullyUsed.com