0Buying This Food
Look for: Firm lemons and limes that are heavy for their size. The heavier the fruit, the
juicier it will be. The skin should be thin, smooth, and fine grained—shiny yellow for a
lemon, shiny green for a lime. Deeply colored lemons and limes have a better flavor than
pale ones. All lemons are egg-shaped, but the Key lime (which is the true lime) is small and
round. Egg-shaped limes are hybrids.
Storing This Food
Refrigerate fresh lemons and limes. The lemons will stay fresh for a month, the limes for up
to eight weeks. Sliced lemons and limes are vulnerable to oxygen, which can destroy their
flavor and their vitamin C. Wrap them tightly in plastic, store them in the refrigerator, and
use them as quickly as possible.
Preparing This Food
The skin of the lemon and lime are rich in essential oils that are liberated when you cut into
the peel and tear open its cells. To get the flavoring oil out of the peel, grate the top, colored
part of the rind (the white membrane underneath is bitter) and wrap it in cheesecloth. Then
wring out the oil onto some granulated sugar, stir thoroughly, and use the flavored sugar in
baking or for making drinks. You can freeze lemon and lime peel or zest (grated peel), but it
will lose some flavor while frozen.
Lemons and limes are often waxed to protect them from moisture loss enroute to the
store. Before you peel or grate the fruit, scrub it with a vegetable brush to remove the wax.
What Happens When You Cook This Food
Heating citrus fruits and juices reduces their supply of vitamin C, which is heat-sensitive.
How Other Kinds of Processing Affect This Food
Juice. Since 2000, following several deaths attributed to unpasteurized apple juice contami-
nated with E. coli O157:H7, the FDA has required that all juices sold in the United States be
pasteurized to inactivate harmful organisms such as bacteria and mold.
“Lemonade.” The suffix “ade” signifies that this product is not 100 percent juice and does
not deliver the amounts of nutrients found in juice. NOTE: Commercial “pink lemonade” is
plain lemonade colored with grape juice.
Lemons