This Simple Lemon-Juicing Hack Deserves to Go Viral

I’m pleased to report that shamefully downloading Tiktok in the depths of lockdown has yielded something life-enriching.

As I was mindlessly swiping through the app’s “For You” page, I came across this video, which I watched on loop for a solid five minutes.

The gist: all you need to juice a lemon is a skewer and a firm hand. I was intrigued, but sceptical. At Broadsheet , we take these sorts of hacks with a Salt Bae-sized pinch of salt. And for good reason.

Remember that viral video of a knife sliding into a full head of garlic and popping out clove after clove? Mostly BS. Jamie Oliver’s suggestion to turn your toaster on its side to make a melted-cheese sandwich? Highly dangerous, according to the London Fire Brigade.

On her Youtube channel How to Cook That, Melbourne-based cook Ann Reardon has recently begun debunking bogus food hacks such as these , garnering millions of views. Sadly, she doesn’t seem to have covered this one yet.

With no concrete evidence about the merits of the lemon-juicing hack, I only have one logical course of action: buy a lemon and give it a skewering.

The test

First, I subject the lemon to a few firm, rolling-pin-style motions with my hand, to loosen the juice inside.

Then, with a wooden skewer, I pierce the lemon’s nipple-like end and stop just short of kebab-ing it. (This is crucial. Otherwise, you’ll end up with an unruly, two-pronged lemon fountain. I learned the hard way.)

I remove the skewer and start squeezing the lemon with a full fist. After a few pulses: nothing. Has the internet done me dirty? I continue.

Then, almost out of nowhere, a jet of lemon juice. And another. As the bowl starts to fill, I realise this is the closest I’ll probably ever come to milking a cow – the lemon like an udder, the juice like fresh milk.

The result

Un 👏 deniable 👏 success 👏 !

The ridiculously simple skewer method produces 50 millilitres of zingy, pip-free lemon juice. And it’s just as effective when I try it with a metal skewer and a sharp-pointed chopstick.

For comparison, I roll and juice an identically sized lemon with a citrus squeezer and it produces just 43 millilitres.

The pros
• No need for a citrus squeezer, reamer , handheld lever press or any other juicing contraption.
• Marginally more liquid for your labour (seven millilitres, in this case).
• Increased capacity for on-the-go juicing.
• Less chance of pesky pip slips in salad dressings, marinades, teas, cocktails et al.
• A great alternative to finger-straining said pips.
• Works just as well with limes.
• A use for skewers that isn’t cooking shish kebabs, checking if your cake is properly baked or opening your phone’s sim-card slot.
• Decreased Tiktok-related self-loathing.

The cons
• Unsuitable for juicing in large quantities (RSI may result).
• Significantly less effective with oranges.