EntranceHow to remove bitterness from lemon. Lemon zest and candied fruit
Fragrant yellow-sided lemon is a frequent guest in our kitchen and a real magician. It is responsible for aroma, freshness, brightness and balance of flavors. We have collected 10 of the most useful secrets this sunny fruit.
1. One medium lemon (90 g) will make about 2 tsp. zest and 8-10 tbsp. l. juice.
2. The most fragrant part of a lemon is the zest. You need to cut it off without white cotton wool, as it is very bitter. This is especially important when it comes to baking.
3. The next time you freeze ice in a cube mold, put a couple of drops of lemon juice into each water cell. Lemon ice is useful for cocktails, lemonades or iced tea. A couple of cubes fragrant ice you can also throw it into hot tea, instead of diluting it with water or when you don’t have a lemon on hand.
4. If you only need a couple of drops of lemon juice, pierce the lemon with a skewer in one or two places and squeeze right amount juice. Then wrap the lemon in clingfilm or put it in an airtight container, so it will last much longer than cut.
5. Lemon room temperature gives more juice than from the refrigerator. Take it out ahead of time so it has time to warm up a bit. There will be even more juice if you first massage the lemon a little with your hands, and then squeeze the juice.
6. The old secret of Indian housewives: if you want to cook crumbly rice, add a little lemon juice to the water (1-2 teaspoons). He will not let the rice stick together and make them snow-white.
7. The breast is the leanest and healthiest part of the chicken, but also the most capricious. Drying white meat is as easy as shelling pears, but there is one secret. Before cooking, rub the breast with a slice of lemon - the meat will turn out more juicy and tender. 
8. Lemons, like many other fruits, are often waxed. To remove it (for example, when you need the zest), dip the lemons for a few seconds in boiling water, and then wipe thoroughly with a napkin. For reliability, you can also rinse with soap.
9. The smaller the zest, the stronger the flavor. Rub the zest right before use, otherwise all the most valuable will disappear. If you need to use lemon juice and zest in the same recipe, grate the zest first and then squeeze the juice.
10. Put the excess zest in sugar or sea salt in flakes. Lemon sugar will give a fragrant citrus note to creamy desserts, pastries, cookies, homemade ice cream or sorbet, tea and lemonade.
Lemon salt is useful for risotto (for example, with seafood), any fish dishes, salad dressings, and also for sprinkling vegetables before roasting (for example, cauliflower) or salt the water before cooking (e.g. for pasta or asparagus).
Lemon is one of the most common citrus fruits. But at the same time, unlike oranges, tangerines and grapefruits, lemon is primarily valued not for its taste qualities, but for healing properties. As soon as you get sick, you are reminded: be sure to drink tea with lemon. This citrus fruit is brought to the hospital for each patient, this is already a classic of the genre on a par with oranges. Lemon juice is used in many diets, as well as home and folk recipes beauty. So, lemon - how it can be useful to us, how to choose it, and when and to whom it is not recommended to use lemons.
What is in a lemon?
organic acids.
Phytoncides.
Flavonoids.
Riboflavin.
Hesperidin.
Sesquiterpenes.
Calcium.
Cellulose.
Carotene.
Bitter substances and oil (in the pits).
Vitamin C.
Vitamin A, D, E, B1, B2, B9, PP.
100 grams of fresh lemon contains 40 mg of vitamin C.
Benefits of Lemon and Lemon Juice
The composition of the lemon includes a huge amount of ascorbic acid. That's why lemon juice is a great tool:
o to strengthen the immune system;
o Lemon juice helps lower blood sugar levels;
o has antipyretic properties;
o tones and energizes the body.
Also, lemon zest and juice have a high antiseptic effect. Rinsing the mouth with diluted lemon juice or brewed zest can even cure purulent sore throat.
Beneficial lemon juice also acts in urolithiasis. According to doctors, sand and small stones can dissolve with prolonged use of lemon juice.
Lemon juice is indispensable for removing toxins, normalizing metabolism and treating obesity.
Lemon also helps with an old cough.
But the true panacea is lemon juice to strengthen and rejuvenate the walls of blood vessels. Citrine, which is part of this juice, in combination with ascorbic acid, not only strengthens capillaries, veins and arteries, but also makes them elastic. Therefore, the periodic use of lemon in food is the prevention of most vascular diseases.
Lemon harm
Lemon is a strong allergen, like all citrus fruits. Therefore, you should not use it in very large quantities. Also, an allergic reaction can be provoked by chemicals that are used to treat lemons when grown.
Concentrated lemon juice is harmful to tooth enamel, it destroys it, especially if it enters the oral cavity along with sugar.
Citric acid strongly irritates the gastric mucosa and can provoke an exacerbation of gastritis or peptic ulcer of the stomach and duodenum, so people suffering from these diseases should use lemon very carefully, and best of all, exclude it from the diet. This fruit is also not recommended for people suffering from pancreatitis. Lemon juice often provokes heartburn.
With inflammation in the oral cavity and pharynx, rinsing with undiluted lemon juice can lead not only to irritation, pain, but even to bleeding and prolonged healing.
Hypertensive patients should also treat this fruit with caution, because it can increase blood pressure.
Lemon should not be given to children under two years of age, because children are often allergic to lemon juice, and it also has a negative effect on the mucous membrane of the child's stomach.
Pregnant and lactating mothers should be careful.
How to choose a lemon
Lemons keep for a very long time if you choose them correctly. The bright color of the peel does not always indicate the maturity of the fruit.
If the peel of a lemon is shiny and the fruit is hard to the touch, then it is unripe and will be stored for a long time, such lemons are more acidic than ripe ones.
If the lemon is a little soft and the peel is matte, then you have a ripe fruit in front of you, it will be stored for only a few days.
Sometimes lemons are supercooled during transportation, you can immediately distinguish them by the presence of small brown spots on the peel, such lemons have a bitter aftertaste.
How to check the quality of a lemon
Also, when buying, pay attention to appearance fruit. It should be dense, the skin is shiny, without signs of decay, damage, compaction and brown spots.
Do you know why a lemon can be bitter? Because either he was “stuffed” with antibiotics for longer storage, or he froze, or was not yet ripe.
In the cut, the film should fit snugly against the slices.
Thick-skinned lemons have more vitamins than thin-skinned ones, since the subcutaneous white layer (albedo), which is considered the most tasteless, has the highest concentration of bioflavonoids that help the absorption of vitamin C, and vitamin C itself.
How to use correctly
Water with lemon
To obtain maximum benefit from water with lemon, it must be prepared and taken as follows:
Wash 1 lemon and grind it, along with the peel, in a blender or food processor.
Add one tablespoon to a glass of boiled water and drink.
You need to take such a drink at least 3-4 times a day half an hour before meals.
Please note that the water should not be hotter than 50 degrees. Otherwise, half useful substances(and primarily ascorbic acid) will simply be destroyed.
Tea with lemon
Tea with lemon should also be prepared in a completely different way to which we are accustomed. The main difference in the preparation of such a drink is the addition of lemon juice only to the cooled tea. Otherwise, as in the case of lemon water, most of the nutrients will be lost.
The second secret is that tea with lemon is better to prepare green. It is this connection useful properties creates a drink that can work wonders. Normalization of pressure, prevention of respiratory diseases, rejuvenation of body cells and stable weight loss - this is an incomplete list of what the use of green tea with lemon guarantees.
Lemon has beneficial properties, but also harmful properties this fruit has no less. When using lemon or its juice, observe the measure.
lemon zest- excellent flavoring for dough. Great to add to pies, cookies, and other homemade baked goods.
PREPARING THE LEMON ZEST
From scalded with boiling water and wiped dry oranges or lemons, remove the zest - the outer fragrant shell,. You can remove the zest from citrus fruits with a fine grater or a piece of refined sugar, after sprinkling a little lemon or orange with fine sugar and rubbing it over the surface with your hands.
It is necessary to store the peeled zest in syrup or by mixing it with granulated sugar or powder (the mixture should have the density of a paste).
Before using in baking, the zest is poured warm water, squeezed through gauze and these pomace is used as a flavoring for dough for pies and various fillings.
Orange and lemon zest will lose their bitterness if citrus fruits are kept in boiling water for 4-5 minutes. At the same time, the lemon will give more juice and become more fragrant.
The aroma of non-bitter zest can be enhanced if the lemon is simply scalded with boiling water before removing the zest.
If half a lemon is used according to the pie recipe, then you can save the remaining half for later as follows: put 5-6 drops of vinegar on a saucer, put a lemon on it cut down and cover with a tea cup on top. So it keeps for quite a long time.
Lemon or orange peels, when only juice and pulp are used, can be cut, dried and stored in a dry glass jar with a lid. Then they can be ground and used instead of zest.
CANDIED FRUIT
Candied fruits are used mainly for sweet fillings or in butter dough, or eaten simply as a treat.
Candied fruits can be prepared both from citrus fruits and from other berries or fruits. Most often they are made from the peels of oranges and lemons.
For their preparation of candied fruits, the peels are soaked in cold water 3-4 days, periodically changing the water, and then boiled in sugar syrup.
PREPARATION OF CANDIED
Pass fresh citrus peels (each type separately or mixed together, for example, lemons with oranges) through a meat grinder, sprinkle with fine sugar, laying in layers in glass jar and compacting each layer, and refrigerate for 3-4 days.
Then transfer the mixture to enamel pan and cook over low heat until the mass thickens well.
You need to store ready-made candied fruits in the refrigerator in a closed glass jar.
When preparing candied fruits from fruits, they are boiled in a thick sugar syrup, like jam, and they are not removed from the syrup so that they dry out and candied.
Lemon is very useful for the human body, they drink tea with it, use it in baking and cooking sauces, replace vinegar with it. But it happens that after buying and tasting it you feel an unpleasant bitterness. Agree bitter lemon is unpleasant to eat, it can ruin your dish, so something needs to be done about it.
First, you need to understand why is lemon bitter after all, only by understanding the cause can you deal with the consequences, that is, remove the bitterness from the lemon. To find out why a lemon is bitter, you need to find out how it was grown, how it was stored and how it was processed.
1. How are lemons processed and how does it affect them?
Lemon can be bitter due to the chemicals used to treat it. Lemon is processed, most often, for long-term storage, a more attractive appearance. And having absorbed these substances, the lemon will be very unpleasantly bitter.
How to remove bitterness from lemon?
Bitterness, when treated with antibiotics or other substances, is contained in the peel of a lemon. But even if the lemon is not bitter, it is better for him to carry out water procedures (after all, you don’t know how it was processed).
Therefore, place the lemon in a colander and pour boiling water over it. The boiling water will wash away anything the lemon has been treated with and scrub it out of the lemon peel.
After that, you can safely eat the lemon with the skin or use the lemon zest when baking.
Unfortunately, when buying a lemon, even if you ask, no one will tell you how the lemon was processed, since the end seller does not have such information. Lemons are processed in their native country, and wholesale buyers are little interested in such issues, because for them the main task is the minimum price and appearance (preservation), and they are not interested in how it was processed. For such suppliers, the main thing is that the goods are preserved until they pass half the continent.
2. How is lemon stored? And how to choose lemons when buying?
Bitterness in a lemon may appear after improper storage. Very often when buying lemons in the market in winter, you can see that they are bitter. Why is this happening? At sub-zero temperatures, lemons freeze, and after that they not only lose most of their useful properties, but also begin to taste bitter.
How to get rid of bitterness in such a lemon? If the lemon has been frozen, it is unlikely to be saved, you can try to remove the skin from it, but if bitterness is felt, then it is better to throw it away. And when buying, pay attention to its appearance! The lemon should be smooth and weighty in the hand.
3. How to grow a lemon at home?
If you have a lemon growing at home and its fruits are a little bitter, then such a lemon does not have enough sunlight and heat. And next time you will grow a lemon in a sunnier room or on a balcony, but only if it is warm outside.
The lemon tree is grown in a warm room, with an air temperature of + 18 ... + 22 ° C, and it is desirable that the total daylight hours be 10-12 hours a day.