TikTok University has struck again. A man shared a hack that will have you saying “easy peasy lemon squeezy.” All you need to test it out is a lemon and a toothpick.
In his video, TikTok user Gerson Repreza (@gersonrepreza) stands in front of his stovetop in his kitchen, holding a lemon. Repreza appears to be cooking a dish that calls for lemon juice.
He continues, “So, I was today years old when I found out about this,” he says. “To get some juice out of a lemon, you just need a toothpick. Just put it in there, in the butt. You don’t need to cut it open.”
He demonstrates by poking the lemon at one of its ends, which he refers to as the “butt.” Repreza then rolls the lemon in his hands before squeezing it into the pan on his stovetop.
Why should you roll a lemon before juicing it?
According to epicurious, rolling a lemon “loosens and breaks down some of the citrus membranes and makes the outside a little more pliable.” That’s why you’ll sometimes see people rolling their lemons on a counter or, like Repreza, in their hands before cutting into them.
Repreza appears shocked by how much juice comes out of the lemon. “What? Bro, way less mess. How crazy is this?” he exclaims while still squeezing the juice into the pan.
His video was viewed 10.8 million times.
Repreza is disappointed by how long he’s gone without this knowledge. “Why did yall not tell me about this?” he questioned in the caption.
@gersonrepreza Why did yall not tell me about this? 🤔 🍋#lemonhack #cookinghack #lemonjuice #fyp #foryoupage ♬ original sound – 🤍🥥S•phia🐚🍨
The Daily Dot reached out to Repreza via Instagram direct message and TikTok comment.
Viewers were just as shocked as Repreza, they shared in the comments section.
“Those lemon juice bottles were trying to tell us the whole time,” one viewer wrote.
“Did you…. Did you just milk a lemon??” a second asked.
“Excuse me, you’re telling me easy peasy lemon squeezy were actually instructions,” a third questioned.
“I’m seeing it… but I still don’t believe it..” a fourth remarked.
At least one viewer shared their success when trying the hack.
“I did this at work and next day heard a guy yell ‘why is this lemon empty,’” they shared.
Other methods to juicing lemons
While the most common way to juice a lemon is by cutting it in half before squeezing the juice out of each half, the poke-and-squeeze method is likely the least messy, as Repreza says in his video. You can also freeze a lemon before thawing and cutting it, according to Jerry James Stone. This lesser known method causes the juice to “expand and ultimately breaks down the cell walls within the lemon. Then when the lemon thaws, it is softer and thus yields more juice.”
Jerry James Stone also recommends microwaving the lemon to make it easier to work with. But the outlet tested various methods and found that a combo of all three—rolling the lemon, freezing it, then microwaving it—yields the most juice.
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