The Simple Hack That Will Transform Your Kitchen Tongs Into A Juicer
Whether you're trying to juice a lemon, lime, orange, or any other citrus fruit, the process can sometimes be grueling, especially if you're trying to yield a lot of liquid. Oftentimes, the fruit slips away, seeds go flying, and juice ends up everywhere except where it should be going. Handheld juicers work, but if you're hoping to end up with a large amount of juice, get ready for your hand to hurt. Even a tabletop juicer can take much more manual effort than is realistic. Plus, no one enjoys being persuaded into buying that latest trending kitchen gadget only to find out it doesn't actually work as intended.
The Spruce Eats recently shared an unlikely kitchen tool that is better at the job of juicing than your hands and costs way less than other kitchen juicers. With the right know-how and a little practice, it turns out that kitchen tongs can do a lot more than just plating pasta or flipping steaks on a grill.
Getting creative with kitchen tongs
The trick to successfully juicing with a pair of tongs involves using this kitchen tool in a rather non-traditional way. Let's use juicing a lemon as an example. Instead of using the end of the tongs to manipulate the fruit, you place the halved lemon flesh-side down in between the tongs' arms and use the tongs' leverage to squeeze the juice out along with the lemon's seeds, The Spruce Eats explains. While some people like to put the lemon closer to the end of the tongs, The Spruce Eats recommends placing the lemon closer to the hinge, since you can get more leverage that way. Not only is the process of juicing with tongs pretty straightforward, but it doesn't require a ton of strength or a repetitive back and forth motion.
And if you're looking to avoid seeds in your juice, that's easy to do using kitchen tongs, too. Epicurious suggests juicing the fruit into your hand to catch any stray seeds, but if you need both hands for tong leverage, a fine mesh strainer will work just fine.