If you’re baking a lemon loaf or citrusy crinkle cookies, you’ll get the most concentrated citrus flavor by adding lemon zest to the mix. While lemon juice adds an acidic punch to salad dressings and countless other dishes, lemon zest holds all the fruit’s fragrant, floral notes. But what’s the best way to zest a lemon? It really depends on what you’re cooking and what tools you have on hand (no, you don’t necessarily need a Microplane). Below, we break down four ways to strip the lemon zest from the fruit—without bringing any of the bitter white pith along for the ride. Bonus: These zesting techniques don’t just apply to lemons. Use them for limes, oranges, and grapefruit too.
First, a little citrus anatomy lesson:
The outer layer of the lemon (a.k.a. the zest or “the yellow part”) holds all the fruit’s natural oils. You can zest it (yes, zest is both the name for the lemon rind and the action you take to remove it) to capture lemon’s essential fragrance and flavor in order to enhance almost anything you’re cooking. Beneath the lop layer is the white, spongy pith, which is unpleasantly bitter. When zesting, make sure to avoid it (if you have a Microplane, this is easy since a sharp rasp—the part of the Microplane with all the little holes—won’t scratch below the zest). Below the pith is the flesh of the lemon, which contains the juice and seeds.
The skin acts as a protective barrier to keep the inside fresh and juicy—a lemon without its zest will quickly dry out. After zesting your citrus, juice it ASAP (ideally within 24 hours), or store the fruit in the fridge in an airtight storage container. Don’t leave the zest at room temperature for too long either, as it’ll quickly become brittle. If you don’t plan to use it right away, combine the citrus zest with sugar (or salt, for savory applications) and massage the mixture to release the oil, then store in an airtight container.
One medium-size lemon typically yields 1 Tbsp. lemon zest. Larger citrus fruits will give you slightly more zest (one medium orange yields about 2 Tbsp. orange zest), while smaller ones will yield less (one lime yields about 2 tsp. lime zest). Now on to the techniques:
Technique 1: The Microzest
What’s it for: Folding fine flecks of zest into cake batter, finishing dishes.
Photograph by Isa Zapata, Food Styling by Taneka Morris, Prop Styling by Gerri K. Williams
The best tool to achieve fine, fluffy lemon zest is a Microplane. Unlike clunky box graters with their large, dull holes, this handheld tool has tiny-but-mighty blades. They’ll dull over time, so replace your Microplane about every four years. Besides zesting citrus, you can use it to grate fluffy clouds of Parmesan, quickly turn garlic cloves or ginger knobs into a paste, or grate those fresh knobs of nutmeg we’re always telling you to buy.
If your recipe calls for finely grated lemon zest, this technique is the one for you. It yields a fine, plush pile of zest that adds delicate yellow flecks to your baked goods or marinades: Fold finely grated zest into the batter for this preserved lemon tea cake or combine it with sugar to make the filling for a lemon-poppy seed tart. You can also zest a lemon right over just about any dish (like a bowl of Old Bay chips) for a final citrusy pop.
How to do it: Holding the lemon in one hand and a Microplane in the other, run the tool lightly, but firmly over a small patch of the fruit’s surface. To better control where the zest is going or to measure it more exactly, use your Microplane with its well facing up and hold the fruit below it. To garnish a dish, hold the lemon above the tool, with its well facing down, allowing the zest to gently cascade over the dish. Take care to zest only the yellow skin, avoiding the white part. You’ll begin to notice little flurries of zest collecting in the well of the Microplane; tap them into a small bowl and continue zesting one patch at a time until you’ve covered the entire surface area of the lemon, with no yellow skin remaining.
Technique 2: Big Curls
What’s it for: Infusing curd, syrup, or sugar with big citrus flavor, garnishing dishes.
Photograph by Isa Zapata, Food Styling by Taneka Morris, Prop Styling by Gerri K. Williams
If you’re zesting a lot of lemons (say, for lemon curd), try this time-saving technique. It yields long, stringy curls of lemon zest—ideal for infusing sugar, curd, or syrup with lemony zing. These pretty lemon curlies can also be used as a garnish for desserts, like cookies or Super Lemony Olive Oil Cake, or savory dishes like lemon risotto. If you’re just after the aromatic essence and don’t want large curls of zest in the finished dish, you can strain them out.
How to do it: Hold the lemon in your hand like a baseball and firmly run the Microplane over the lemon’s surface from the top to the bottom in one long swoop, resulting in larger curls of zest. Rotate the lemon and continue zesting in stripes until you’ve covered the entire surface area of the lemon, with no yellow skin remaining.
Technique 3: The Twist
What’s it for: Garnishing cocktails, candying citrus peels.
Photograph by Isa Zapata, Food Styling by Taneka Morris, Prop Styling by Gerri K. Williams
If you’re working on your home bartending skills (or want to fancify your afternoon seltzer), garnish your drink with a twist of lemon. Instead of a Microplane, which has lots of tiny blades, achieve lemon peel spirals with a channel knife, a handheld tool with a curved blade at its head. A channel knife (which often has a citrus zester on the other end) digs long, thick tunnels in the lemon rind, yielding sturdy citrus spirals to garnish drinks, like a Champagne cocktail or lemon drop martini. This method will leave some of the pith intact, but that’s what helps the spiral hold its shape. To make candied citrus peels, blanch the curls in boiling water, simmer them in simple syrup, and coat them in sugar.
How to do it: Starting at the top of the lemon, dig the channel knife beneath the lemon skin and rotate to peel one long strip around the lemon’s circumference. Peel in one continuous motion, moving in a spiral down the fruit, or opt for multiple shorter strips. To make a spiral shape, twirl the strip around your finger.
Technique 4: Wide strips
What’s it for: Fuss-free garnishes, big-batch drinks, lemon zest emergencies.
While we consider a Microplane an essential addition to anyone’s cooking arsenal, not all home cooks have one. If you don’t have the above gadgets on hand, turn to a kitchen drawer mainstay: the vegetable peeler. Use the peeler (or, if you don’t have that either, a paring knife) to make wide strips of lemon peel, ideal for infusing lemonade or pots of chickpeas with citrusy flavor. They make a low-maintenance garnish for glasses of lemon-ginger tonic (take the same approach with blood oranges for this spiced blood orange shrub); you can also slice them into thin strips to top bowls of pasta al limone. In a pinch, you can finely mince wide strips of lemon peel as a substitute for finely grated lemon zest, but note that the Microplane achieves a finer, fluffier texture that’s difficult to replicate with a knife.
How to do it: Using a vegetable peeler, peel large strips of lemon rind, taking care to avoid the white pith. If desired, stack them on a cutting board and use a sharp paring knife to cut the lemon rind into thin strips or finely mince into itty-bitty pieces.
When life gives you lemons…
Use lemon zest in any number of ways: It can swing savory (add lemon zest to gremolata, an herby, citrusy condiment to sprinkle over just about any dish) or sweet (massage fresh lemon zest into sugar and incorporate it into baked goods). Try this honey-glazed Easter bread recipe, where lemon zest pairs up with lemon extract to deliver extra zingy, zesty flavor. Or go for a sweet-and-savory combo with this preserved lemon tea cake that triples down on the lemon flavor with juice, zest, and the titular preserves.
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Zoe Denenberg