Thank goodness for some common sense. I thought I was living in a parallel universe to hear about people making lemon meringue pie with lemon juice out of a bottle and others buying lemon oil to make it taste like lemon. Funnily enough, if I want something to taste like lemon I use lemons. I was beginning to think that sort of rationale had gone out with the ark until I read your post. It has restored my faith in lemon meringue pie lovers.
Lemon oil from the bakery section is lemon oil from the rind of lemon. It even has some advantages over make-your-own-lemon-zest, as you don't need to scrub the lemon to get the coating off, and you don't have to deal with green-y shriveled up lemons. And you're not left with zested lemons that need to be used somehow.
Exactly. Use lemons for a lemony taste. Great idea.
I dimly recall some orange-flavored drink commercials years ago that boasted that their part-juice tasted better than plain orange juice because it was loaded with "flavor enhancers." Like a reviewer once said about McDonald's milkshakes, "Taste better than the real thing."
Ya gotta wonder if everybody in the production and promotion lines believe that stuff.
On Fri 07 Apr 2006 07:06:57a, Thus Spake Zarathustra, or was it Jenn Ridley?
I do use lemon oil in some baking and pickling, but I still maintain that the freshness of fresh lemon juice and fresh lemon oil makes a difference in something like lemon meringue pie. I should add that I can pick them in my yard, so I don't have to deal with green-y shriveled up lemons.
I'm sure it does, it's just that some of us don't have access to good lemons, and zest from the lemons we can get often leaves something to be desired.
You use the zested lemons for the pie filling. And if you're buying "green-y shriveled up lemons," you're not choosing wisely.
Not the same as the lemon oil directly from the zest. At home, we bruise or scrape the skin to release the oils. Then put the oil-coated zest into the pie to get the rest out, as well. Commercially... different story
Forgive me. I've never been anywhere that has to suffer not having "access to good lemons," and I've been all over the world. Anywhere that doesn't have good lemons wouldn't have internet connections, either.
Lemons travel very well, last a long time and are a generally inexpensive item.
Sometimes there *is* no choice, OK? Sometimes the only lemons in the store are the green-y shrivelled up type, OK? (at which point *I* make a different kind of pie, but not everybody will do that.)
I never said it was. But it's certainly better than lemon flavor or using bottled lemon juice.
Frankly, I don't usually make lemon meringue pie because I don't usually have access to good lemons.
I dunno. I think soap tastes better. Ewww! You know, until I had a bad batch of Bean Soup (too much cilantro made it bad).. I used to like it. Now... ewwwwwww. Nope. Icky stuff.
I must be unlucky, I guess. Whenever I look at the lemons in the local grocer, they don't look like anything I'd like to use for anything. Maybe I just don't look often enough.
Try small-town Midwest US. You don't have to get snarky about it.
Jenn, I now live in a rural area that's not even incorporated. It's all farms. The nearest town, miles away, has the vast population of 18,000 and has remained at that number for decades; never been higher. My wife and I joke about going to town and picking up some calico and a barrel of gunpowder and some slab-bacon because we live so far out...
There were more people than that in each of the various buildings I worked in, in New York. We have several supermarkets and a bigass Walmart in the villages around here. We have boondocker IGA stores. I've never seen a green-y lemon in any of them. Never seen a shrivelled one. Lemons are about as close to bulletproof as it gets in the produce section.
Citrus fruits last months off the tree if handled properly. Weeks if handled negligently.
In our town we have two grocery stores, neither has very good produce (or cheese beyond the common ones). The next town up has one small grocery store. Both have a health food store with a limited selection of produce. Produce stands exist for about 4 months of the year.
And what is available is grossly overpriced. The local stores feel this is a resort area, so they charge extra. A "good" price on milk is 2 gallons for $5.00. Normally, it's over $4.00 for 1 gallon. Everything is about 30% more than at a store about 60 miles away. However, because of the mountain roads, that store is not always easy to get to. When I lived in a large city, 60 miles was "across town," here it's a potentially perilous drive.
When I recently visited my parents in Dallas, I was stunned. At one intersection there were 6 grocery stores, each of which was larger than both of the stores in my home town. After a while, you forget the comforts of living in a large city.
On the other hand, I NEVER lock my car, and we rarely lock the house. I don't bother locking up my bike. People leave their cars running while they go into the post office, and the cars are still there when they come out (I think those folks are idiots, but not because of the risk of theft - they are burning lots of gas for no reason).
I understand hinterlands. I live on a farm in an unincorporated area. Nearest town has 18,000 people and has for the 30+ years I've lived around here. 10 miles to the nearest (very downscale) grocery.
But I've never seen "green-y shrivelled up" lemons anywhere. And what is the implication of that assertion, that they somehow came in "green-y shrivelled up" off the produce truck? At some point, in any stores, there have to be fresh lemons available. A phone call could easily enough find out when that would be. If not to the store, to the produce company. I don't buy it.
I've never seen milk for that price, and this is a dairy area.
Our front door doesn't lock. Only people who have recently moved here from an urban area lock anything.
I've recently discovered that the pretty lemons and limes in my grocery stores are coated with some sort of "edible" carnuba or beeswax product. No one seems to worry about it. I try to scrub those lemons whose rind I plan to use, but, since the stuff is waterproof, I wonder what I am accomplishing. Anyone which thoughts on this matter??
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