Alright — we all know what these citrus squeezers are, right? You cut your lemon, then pop it in there to get the juice out. But sometimes it's annoying when your lemons are so big, and sometimes juice ends up dribbling everywhere. And squeezing by hand isn't ideal, you know?
Well, imagine my surprise when I saw this lemon hack trend circulating around TikTok! Apparently, you can get a lemon to produce so much juice without even cutting it! All you need is a skewer. Here's how it works:
The hack is simple. You get a skewer and stick it in the end of a lemon. It looks like you move it around a bit to get the juices flowing. Then, you take the skewer out and squeeze. Ideally, you should have some juice pouring out! Here's another woman trying it with success:
And here's one more success story:
I wanted to debunk this hack and see if it actually worked so YOU don't have to. Unfortunately, I don't own any kebab skewers — but I understand the purpose of it. The sharp end of the skewer pokes through the skin of the lemon, and then the base gets the juices flowing. I used what I had at home: a pumpkin carver to break the lemon skin, and a chopstick that would mimic the base of the skewer.
I started off by rolling the lemon and then using the carver to poke through the tough skin.
Then I went in with my chopstick and wiggled it around. When I pulled it out, you could see the tiny hole it made.
Finally...the moment of truth. It worked! Juice did, in fact, come dribbling out of the lemon.
This hack is handy if you need a baby squeeze of lemon to cook with (fish, shrimp, etc.) or if you're making a nice cup of lemon water (or tea!) and don't want to take the time to slice up a lemon. But if you need a lot of lemon juice or the entire lemon, you're probably better off squeezin' it with a press.
