Myth Or Fact: Does Rolling And Pressing Your Citrus Results In Extracting More Juice?

If you do a Google search on how to get the most juice out of a citrus, you’ll find several “lifehack” articles suggesting various tricks. Some methods do make sense (at least in theory), some are quite weird – one ‘lifehack” wants you to microwave the fruit before juicing it!

The most common tip though is the one suggesting that you should roll the fruit on the countertop before slicing it. By doing so, you supposedly break the membranes that hold the juice hence, you end up having more of the good stuff when you squeeze it.

This one is so popular, it’s even mentioned by top chefs (here’s a video of Jamie Oliver doing it), and world-class bartenders, such as Simone Caporale. But does it work? Does rolling a citrus fruit have an impact on the amount of juice you eventually get out of it? (the article continues after the ad)

I was about to go and buy some limes and put these claims to the test, but then i remembered Jeffrey Morgenthaler’s The Bar Book: Elements of Cocktail Technique (an amazingly cool book for both aspiring bartenders and home enthusiasts like myself). In it, 2016’s America’s Bartender of the Year does just that – he investigates all these options one by one. And the results are rather surprising.

The methods tested are the following (each group consisted of fifteen lemons that weighed more or less the same):

• Group 1: lemons were refrigerated – not rolled before juicing
• Group 2: lemons were room temperature – not rolled before juicing
• Group 3: lemons were refrigerated and rolled before juicing
• Group 4: lemons were room temperature and rolled before juicing

The results? The group with the highest “juice per lemon” and therefore, “total volume of juice” was… group 1 – the one were with the refrigerated lemons that have not been rolled. Here is the table with full findings:

Tap here for full size picture.

Myth busted.

There’s absolutely no need to make that extra effort and roll your citrus before juicing them – keep them fresher, colder, save some time and have better results by simply… refrigerating them.

 

BONUS FACT: The average lime will yield about 1oz of juice (30ml), the average lemon about 1.5oz (45ml) and the average orange about 3oz (90ml) of juice.

If you like what you read, then you will definitely love this one: Myth Or Fact: Women Use An Average Of 20,000 Words Per Day While Men Use 7,000  

Photo: Simon T. Doe / I’m A Useless Info Junkie
Photoshop: I’m A Useless Info Junkie
Sources: The Bar Book: Elements of Cocktail Technique