How to Squeeze and Freeze Lemons and Limes

You can have a constant, fresh supply of lemon and lime juice for your favorite beverages and other recipes by "squeezing and freezing" the juice from these succulent fruits. If you have a lemon or lime tree, or if a friend or neighbor gives you a bag of these fruits, it's simple to prepare the juice and store it in your freezer for use in delicious recipes later on, long after the fruit might have rotted if you let it sit.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Citrus juicer
• Lemons, limes, oranges or other citrus fruit
• Plastic containers
• Refrigerator with some freezer space

1. Select ripe, juicy lemons, limes, oranges or other citrus fruits.
2. Wash the fruit and let it dry on a towel.
3. Slice each fruit crosswise and pile up a stack of them.
4. Using a citrus juicer, hold down each half fruit until all or most of the pulp has turned to liquid in the collection container of the juicer.
5. Use sealing plastic containers that hold 4 to 8 ounces of liquid.
6. When the juicer's collection container has enough juice, transfer it into the plastic containers and then snap on their lids tightly.
7. When all of the plastic containers are full of juice, make stick-on labels for them that tell you later what's inside and the date you prepared the juice.
8. Stack the full containers in the freezer.

Tips & Warnings

• If you wash and save your old margarine tubs and other plastic containers, you'll save the money you might have spent buying special plastic containers.
• It's best to use up juice within six months or so of freezing it.
• To thaw, simply remove one of the containers from the freezer and allow to stand at room temperature for about two hours.
• If you don't need all of the juice you have thawed, it's fine to re-freeze it.
• Using a flip-top plastic bottle, or one with a cork, is a handy way of keeping thawed juice. Be sure to keep it refrigerated and use it within about two weeks.
• You can use thawed citrus juice for lemonade, limeade, teas, cocktails and thousands of other uses, such as in recipes for lemon cake or bread.