I made key lime pie yesterday - one of my all-time favorite desserts - for my in-laws, who are in town and staying with us. Sadly I can't eat any of the pie because I'm still not feeling 100%. Yes, this is torture. To make the pie you need 1/2 up lime juice, which usually is the juice of 4 small limes. I usually get my limes in a big bag from Trader Joe's, so I have plenty left over. I think the bags come with about 8. Well this past time, I had to use 7 limes because 5 of the 7 were what I would call "dried up." I would cut them and put them on my twist-juicer-thing and no juice would come out. Well, a couple of drops, but that's it. It was the strangest thing and I've never really seen it before. I got bogus limes! Has this ever happened to anyone before? Is there any way to try and judge which limes are good in the store?
Sunday, September 13, 2009
All Dried Up
I made key lime pie yesterday - one of my all-time favorite desserts - for my in-laws, who are in town and staying with us. Sadly I can't eat any of the pie because I'm still not feeling 100%. Yes, this is torture. To make the pie you need 1/2 up lime juice, which usually is the juice of 4 small limes. I usually get my limes in a big bag from Trader Joe's, so I have plenty left over. I think the bags come with about 8. Well this past time, I had to use 7 limes because 5 of the 7 were what I would call "dried up." I would cut them and put them on my twist-juicer-thing and no juice would come out. Well, a couple of drops, but that's it. It was the strangest thing and I've never really seen it before. I got bogus limes! Has this ever happened to anyone before? Is there any way to try and judge which limes are good in the store?
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It's because they were left on the tree too long or because they didn't receive enough water while on the tree (or both). I buy my citrus mostly in singles rather than bags for this reason. But, once you know what to look for, you will rarely get them.
ReplyDeleteLook for fruit that look like the citrus skin is tight. Like someone's stuck a hose in the fruit and plumped it up. The fruit should not be squishy. There shouldn't be a lot of wrinkles on the fruit. Dried fruit often have vertical lines toward the middle of the fruit coming from the tips. The skin on a juicy one will look very smooth. I often give the fruit a little squeeze; if it gives, then there's a better chance it may be dry.
I grew up with a big citrus grove and a commercial one next door. My dad used to get mad if I chucked one of our fruit, so I quickly figured out what was juicy and what was dry!
Thanks so much for your help! Hopefully I won't fall victim to any more dried up fruit!
ReplyDeleteFrom startcooking.com: to help make the juices flow better: 1. roll the lemon or lime on the countertop to break some of the fibers down 2. microwave for 7-10 seconds.
ReplyDeleteI had heard of both and google found me the site....