Cool Tip: Easy, Peasey, Lemon Squeezey...Part 3

How to Make a Better Lemon Wedge...

Sounds easy, doesn’t it?  Just take that old lemon and cut it lengthwise into 4 or 6 sections.  That’s what I thought, until I took Blademaster 2. Sounds like a video game, but this was a live class with a real Master Chef, teaching us novices about knife skills.  I’m happy to report that I exited the class with as many fingers as I had when I entered it!

I learned a number of cool things in the class (aside from the fact that I needed the Big Mouth Chopper).  I learned how to hold a knife for greatest control, how to hold the food with my other hand so I didn’t lose a finger.  But one of the best lessons I learned was how to make a proper lemon wedge.  There are a few things you ask of a good lemon wedge:

1. Be easy to hold
2. Don’t get lemon seeds in my food
3. Don’t squirt me (or anyone else) in the eye, and, of course,
4. Squeeze some lemon juice on my food

The old-fashioned lemon wedge doesn’t actually do any of these very well.

So here’s the Colbrook Kitchen Guide to making a Better Lemon Wedge, with a big thank you to Chef Adam Busby:

1. Cut off the ends of the lemon (this makes it easier to hold when you’re squeezing it)
2. Stand the lemon on one end and cut into 4 or 6 wedges (don’t have a photo of that, I figured you knew how to do it.)
3. Slice off the inner core of each wedge and remove the seeds (this opens the cells to allow the juice to flow, without popping through a cell wall and hitting you in the eye)
4. And there you have it:  the Better Lemon Wedge