How Much Juice is in One Lemon
You may be curious to find out how much juice comes out from an average lemon or the recipe calls for one lemon and you only have bottled lemon juice at home.
Let us say you’re making a cheesecake and the recipe calls for 3 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice. The recipe may not give enough information about how many lemons you actually need to buy.
Lemons come in a variety of sizes, and the larger the lemon, the more juice it contains. If the recipe calls for many tablespoons of juice then you need to know how many lemons you have to buy. If you don’t use enough lemon juice the flavor of your food may be affected.
In order to find out how much lemon juice is in one lemon, I tried to squeeze the juice from varying sizes of lemons, small, medium, and large. Then compared the yields to figure out how much juice one lemon holds.
If a recipe calls for juice from one lemon you can take 2 tablespoons of lemon juice. If it calls for 1/2 lemon then 1 tablespoon.
Measurements for Lemon Juice Equivalent
How Many Tablespoons of Juice in a Lemon
The average lemon has 3 tablespoons of juice.
- 1 Small Lemon = 2 tablespoon of fresh juice
- 1 Medium Lemon = 3 tablespoons of fresh juice
- 1 Large Lemon = 4 tablespoons of fresh juice
Size | Juice | Fluid Ounce |
Small | 2 Tablespoon | 1 Ounce |
Medium | 3 Tablespoon | 1.5 Ounce |
Large | 4 Tablespoon | 2 Ounce |
How many cups of Juice in a lemon
Cups | Lemons | Fluid Ounce | Tablespoon |
1/4 cup | 2 lemons | 2 Ounce | 4 Tablespoon |
1/3 cup | 3 lemons | 2.66 Ounce | 5 Tablespoon & 1 teaspoon |
1/2 cup | 4 lemons | 4 Ounces | 8 Tablespoon |
1 cup | 8 lemons | 8 Ounces | 16 Tablespoon |
How To Juice a Lemon – Lemon Juicing Tips
How much juice you get from a lemon depends on a few factors such as the quality and freshness of the lemon and also the method and tools you use.
Keep in mind that some lemons are harder to squeeze than others which means you may be wasting valuable juice. However, there are a few basic tips on how to get the maximum amount of juice out of your lemons.
- Keep your lemon at Room Temperature. If they are straight out of the fridge you won’t get as much juice.
- Roll the lemon across a hard surface: The best way to get more juice from your lemons is to roll them against the chopping board or on the countertop firmly so that it loosens everything up inside the lemon. Do this for 10-15 seconds.
- Place the lemon in the microwave on high for 10 seconds, just make sure it is only 10 seconds. It will help to really get those juices flowing.
- Slice the lemon in half crosswise instead of lengthwise if you’re using a juicer. A Citrus Reamer or Juice Press is the most simple tool to get the most juice out of a lemon.
- Squeeze Lemon by Hand: To get the maximum amount of juice from a lemon a juicer could help. If you don’t have any tools then use a tong to grip the lemon and squeeze it by hand.
- If you’re going to squeeze the juice by hand, cut the lemons in half lengthwise. By exposing as much of the fruit’s flesh as possible, you’ll be able to obtain the most juice out of it.
I recommend getting a good juicer, it extracts a lot of juice, strains away from the pulp and seeds, and pours smoothly, making your job easier.
Lemon Juice Press
A hand-held juice press is one of the simplest ways to juice a lemon. Simply follow these steps to use a juice press:
- Cut the lemon in half crosswise
- Place one half of a lemon in the press’s cup and squeeze over a bowl until the lemon is completely out of juice.
- Continue with the second half of the lemon.
Citrus Reamer
A hand-held reamer can help to extract juice
- Slice the lemon in half crosswise
- Push the blade into the exposed side of a lemon half and twist it over a dish. Continue until the juice is totally gone.
Citrus Reamer with a bowl
The citrus reamer in a bowl is another useful item. You can directly juice your lemons into a bowl that strains out the pulp and seeds. This is quite useful.
How To Maximize the usage of Lemon
Lemon peels have essential oil and it gives that extra flavor. Peel the lemon by using a peeler or grater. You can keep it for later in the freezer.
Lemon zest is the rind of a lemon’s peel on the outside. Because the natural flavors are concentrated in the oils found in zest, it tastes more strong and more aromatic than the juice alone.
How to make lemon zest
You can use a box grater or a Microplane Lemon Zester to get the zest from the lemon easily.
- Simply drag the zest grater cutter-knife across the rinds of lemons or limes.
- Repeat this motion until the pith (the white part of the peel) is exposed.
- Continue the steps all over the lemon.
1 average size lemon has about 1 tablespoon of zest.
1 lemon = 1 tablespoon zest
How To Store Fresh Lemon Juice
Lemon juice can be juiced and then frozen for later use.
- Wash the Lemons and pat dry
- Extract the juice from the lemon. If you do not want the pulp then filter it using a strainer.
- Simply pour the juice into ice tray molds and place them in the freezer. To make it even easier, divide each cube into 1 tablespoon portions and freeze. It will be easy to grab what you need for a recipe if you portion the lemon juice. You will know exactly how much lemon juice is in each cube.
- Place the ice cube tray in the freezer and wait until the lemon juice is solid.
- Then, for ease of use, transfer it to a freezer bag or container and make sure to label the date and content. Put it back into the freezer and you can store up to a year.
Health benefits of Lemon
Fresh Lemons are loaded with vitamin C. When you buy lemon juice from the store in the bottle it might be pasteurized and heated.
