Bottled lemon juice

[chef chicklet]

I'm wondering if anyone uses bottled lemon juice? I am certain that before I became such a freak about using only the freshest of ingredients, I did use bottled lemon juice. It has to be more than 25 years ago when I reached for the well known green bottle.

But I was thinking, I use tons of Chinese condiments that have a shelf life of well.. years.
So why not? Does anyone else use it or is it awful?

I'll go first. I bought a bottle about a week ago okay and it's staring at me. There has been a lot of chatter recently on CH about lemon pie which I dearly love, but today, lemon bars are sounding pretty darn good to me.
Any input?

[chef chicklet]

The marinade that I made for the chicken wasn't anything striking, it was simple. We enjoyed it very much and I will use the bottled for marinade again. Everyone that ate the chicken said how good it was flavored.Yea saving on lemons. We need to pinch when and where we can....

[chef chicklet]

I am marinating chicken thighs in the bottled lemon juice. I made a simple marinade using 1/3 cup of the lemon juice, dark soy sauce, a couple dashes of maggi, same with sesme seed oil, and about 2 T red onion diced tiny/3 smashed and chopped garlic cloves. Fresh ground pepper. The taste of the marinade was good, nothing noticiably different...I'll grill the thighs later this evening.
I had to laugh my hubby came home from lunch saw my little taste set up and so he did it, in 2 seconds he said the bottled was good!
(See my results above from my lengthy tasting this morning and last night)...
Oh what does he know.

[Karl S]

The full flavors of citrus juices have a very short half-life unless frozen. You'll get the acid, but the high floral notes vanish. So, for things where you want the fullest flavors of lemon or limes, only use very freshly squeezed.

[pikawicca]

I have never tasted a bottled lemon juice that I found acceptable. Even with fresh, if you squeeze it ahead of time, the flavor starts to degrade after 30 minutes or so.

[Missyme]

To me, the stuff in the green bottle reeks of preservatives. Fresh lemons are getting really pricey. I find that Minute Maid frozen lemon juice is a very acceptable alternative. It's fresh-tasting, convenient, and relatively inexpensive. I only wish they made lime juice that was as convenient.

[Jimmy Buffet]

>> Fresh lemons are getting really pricey.

There are pretty lousy in terms of quality also.

[meadandale]

Yep....

I've lowered my standards regarding bottled lemon and lime juice when the juice is a supporting ingredient since lemons have been 1 or 2 for a dollar.

[julesrules]

I keep it around, mostly for keeping cut fruit (avocado, apples, pears) from browning. I do occasionally throw it in a recipe where lemon is not the main flavour, for instance some banana bread recipes include a little lemon juice. I assume it just adds a little brightness. I wouldn't use it for lemon bars... if lemons were too expensive I would choose another dessert to make. Let us know if you do any taste tests.

[chef chicklet]

I bought a couple of lemons yesterday. Yeah, I am pretty curious now. This afternoon when I get back home, I'm going to crack the "lemon" juice bottle open. I guess we'll see if it stays, or ends up on the top of the trash can.

[goodhealthgourmet]

chicklet, which one did you buy?

[chef chicklet]

I thought it was RealLemon, nope it was Pampa.

[goodhealthgourmet]

and...? did you try it?

[chef chicklet]

OK. As you all probably know lemon can really over power your sensory functions of taste and smell. These two work so much together that I had to do several tests, each with some time apart giving my sense of smell a chance to go back and my taste buds cleansed.

So since last night this is what my palate arrived at.

Smell-
bottled - sort of reminicently sweet, undescribable citrs
not metallic, not a distinquishable taste of chemical rather something else. I don't know what, however not awful or unpleasant.

Fresh
noticeable bright lemony citrus smell, at deeper smelling some floral notes

Bottled\Taste
Sour/ sharp citrus almost bitter.no metallic/ salty

Fresh\Taste - SOUR, citrusy but not puckering, light salt

What is really noticiable is the color. The bottled almost like a lightly tinged water, the fresh squeezed lemon juice more yellow.

I associate metallic and chemical taste with salt, or some of those bottled seasonings. I get a strong taste that lingers.I did not get that with the bottled lemon

I'm going to marinade chicken with the bottled along with soy, ginger, garlic and some cilantro. It probably won't be bad in this use.

I was going to bake with it but not sure exactly what?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7220939@N03/2646388339/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7220939@...

[rexsreine]

Nothing beats fresh if a recipe is depending on a fair quantity of lemon juice for flavor. I keep the bottled around for times when I need only a teaspoon or two but beyond that all I taste is chemicals. However, there is a frozen lemon juice (still from concentrate) that tastes a lot better than the bottled if fresh lemons are way too expensive. It's not available at all grocery stores - you may have to look in three or four places before you find it.

[sarah galvin]

I always have a bottle of lemon juice in the fridge for 'those times' but I prefer to use fresh. But I agree, at a buck a lemon, I'm not using fresh to make sour milk. I buy Santa Cruz and also Meyer lemon juice from Williams Sonoma. I buy in bulk when they are cheap and freeze both the juice and the zest for future use. But if it isn't critical to have the nice fresh lemon flavour, I use bottled because it's cheaper, easier and convenient.

[diva360]

I don't use bottled lemon juice, though I've never tried any other kinds than the green bottle stuff my mom used when I was a kid. I should add, though, that around these parts you can usually get lemons for 3 or 4 for a dollar. The last time I bought limes they were 6 for a dollar. I'm really grateful that I don't have to pay a dollar per lemon.

[Jimmy Buffet]

Is there a good brand of lemon juice thats available on the East Coast?

[goodhealthgourmet]

if you have a WFM nearby, pick up the santa cruz organics in a glass bottle. still not as good a fresh, but it's the best bottled i've ever found.

[powella]

Minute Maid frozen, comes in a bottle that is then packaged inside a cardboard box. Stop and Shops in Boston display it next to the frozen orange juice concentrate. My friend turned me onto this years ago and I've never looked back. It defrosts like a dream in the fridge and has no chemically taste.

We use the empty bottles to put simple syrup in....voila! Lemonade. Yes, friends, it's that good. We use this bottled lemon juice for lemonade, which our child drinks in large quantities.

I find that any shelf-stable brand tastes awful, even Stanta Cruz organic. Try the MM, you might like it!

[MrsCris]

I agree powella, I love the Minute Maid frozen pure lemon juice. It has none of the acrid bitterness that the shelf stable ones have. You do have to use it up fairly quickly, I found, and lately I haven't been able to find it in my local supermarkets. If you do run across it, I definitely recommend it also.

[Vetter]

Standard bottled lemon juice tastes like preservatives. I've never tried an organic brand, so I don't know about that. I routinely substitute vinegar or alcohol for acid when I don't have a lemon handy. I agree with Dmnkly-- the old chunk left sitting in the fridge is a lot better tasting than bottled.

[Emme]

i use it in stirfries or add to water w/ a little sweetener for a lemonady drink

over fish though or steamed spinach, definitely fresh is the way to go.

[torty]

It tastes like chemicals to me. I would rather use vinegar and orange juice if it was a marinade. However.....I am a spoiled child of Southern California and in desperate situations have been known to send my son and his friends to the homes of relative strangers in the hood to beg a few lemons off their bountiful trees. Were that not available to me- who knows.

[Dmnkly]

I agree that there's too much snobbery regarding fresh vs. bottled/canned/frozen ingredients. Depending on the ingredient in question, sometimes the latter is just fine for certain applications, if not all around.

BUT

I strongly disagree that this applies to lemon juice. I think the difference is substantial and I see no reason to use bottled. A leftover slice of lemon that's been sitting in the fridge for a week and a half tastes better than the bottled stuff. I think the bottled stuff is just vile.

[maisonbistro]

Well, I disagree with you. I will not pay over a dollar for one lemon (yes, here in Montreal, Canada - it is easy to pay that) which might or might not be juicy, for a tablespoon of lemon juice going into something where the lemon flavour is not predominant. I use lemon juice to sour milk when making my secret recipe banana loaf - I will not use a real lemon for that.

I don't know what bottled lemon juice you guys have in the states, but stuff I can get here is a very acceptable replacement. I don't know where the chemical taste comes from as there are no added ingredients to my lemon juice.

[Dmnkly]

I've never detected a chemical taste (I presume you're responding to torty, not me, when you mention that), but every bottled lemon juice I've ever tasted has had a really unpleasant acrid bite, and a very harsh, dirty lemon flavor rather than the clean, bright flavor you get with fresh. I don't discount the possibility that there are acceptable substitutes out there, but I've yet to taste one. And I'm not insensitive to cost issues (I frequently pay the same for lemons here in Baltimore -- which would be significantly more if you aren't converting $CAN to $US), but to me, the difference is substantial enough that it's one place I'm not willing to go with the cheaper option.

But there's no reason we have to agree :-)

Simple answer for anybody -- a few bucks on a bottle and a fresh lemon is a small investment for a simple taste test on a common item. If the difference doesn't bother you, great.

[MMRuth]

The bottled lemon juice that I've tried in the past definitely has an odd taste to it, but I've not tried any bottled lemon juice for years, so there maybe better ones out there. But I'm quite happy using lemons - and, btw, I think the Canadian dollar is pretty much on par w/ the U.S. one these days.

[Dmnkly]

"and, btw, I think the Canadian dollar is pretty much on par w/ the U.S. one these days."

Yow... so it is!

[sarah galvin]

Yeah, but are your paying $1 for a lemon? There is transportation and import costs.

[ScarletB]

This is such a funny thread, with great timing. We bought some organic, not from concentrate lemon juice just today to have in the fridge, just in case. My husband had to really convince me, and it was on sale, but it's true that many times I've gone to make something (recently, hummus) and didn't have any lemons so ended up not making it. I haven't tasted it yet, but will and can post back.

But the really funny thing is I made homemade strawberry lemonade for a dinner party two weeks ago. I ended up not having enough lemons so my husband ran to the store at 11:00 pm while I was squeezing lemons to get more. He came home with 12 lemons that he paid $0.99 for - EACH!!! I would never have paid that, no matter how desperate for lemons. $12.00 for lemons. OMG! It was so sweet of him to go, so I couldn't really say anything other than thank you, but I was shaking my head internally.

[ScarletB]

Alright, I tried it. It's Woodstock Farms organic not-from-concentrate 100% pure lemon juice, and it still tastes like crap. I really don't understand how it can taste so different from regular lemon juice, since that's all it is! I used it in strawberry jam making this morning, so for that I'm sure it's fine, but I'd have to be hard-pressed to use it in a dish where I might actually be able to taste it. Damn, what a bummer.

[Katie Nell]

My husband did the exact same thing last summer! I think he bought 14 at a $1 a piece! He follows my lists to a 't', that's for sure! I've started writing things like "unless it's over $5" or whatever, in parentheses. :-)

I've never been happy with the taste of bottled lemon juice, but I've never played around with brands or anything. I can see using it in baked goods though- I really wouldn't think that would make a difference at all.

[ScarletB]

Priceless! I guess I need to start doing that. I'm definitely specific on brand/size, but haven't been on price, thinking it was kind of common sense, but apparently not. :)

[Calipoutine]

Too funny. Now Robin will say to me" let me know how much is too much to spend on it". I do the same thing now that you do Katie. " Only get it if it costs less than XX dollars. LOL.

I just paid 99 cents for 8 lemons( on clearance). I'm not sure why they were on clearance, they looked fine to me. Anyway, I'm not adverse to using a tsp or two of bottled stuff( in marinades, sauces, etc). But, I used the fresh lemons for lemon bars. I couldnt imagine using bottled stuff for that.

[chef chicklet]

We ate the chicken marinated in the bottled lemon juice. I hate to admit it but the chicken was just feakin awesome!

Don't even get me started about the salad. It was all soooo good.
I'll have to finish the cake tomorrow, it got late and we ate so much bbq chicken and salad.... But I can tell, the cake is going to be stellar!

[mr jig]

We sometimes take this stuff too seriously.
Freshly squeezed lemon on fried fish fine!
A teaspoon of bottled lemon or lime juice providing acid in a marinade,fine too.
Let's not get ridiculous.
Most can't tell lemon from lime in a sauce or marinade, much less if fresh or from concentrate.
dick

[chef chicklet]

I think I need to do a taste test. I was hoping to find that there are people that use it. I find that I can get a little too nutso when it comes to fresh ingredients.And unfortunately, I have let it stop me from making certain dishes before. I am sure that I have eaten lemon bars, loved them very much and someone's mom made them with bottled juice. I know my mother would not of used a fresh lemon for most things to bake or cook with. I only saw lemons on Friday evenings for our shrimp cocktails and then for the fish we had for dinner.

[maisonbistro]

Well, I am not a snob when it comes to this. As I said, I use fresh where the lemon flavour is predominant (lemon poppy seed loaves, lemon square etc.. fish, lemon pasta etc) - but when only a bit is called for and is combined with other ingredients - I do not hesitate in the least to use bottled.

And to add to my rubeness, I also use bottled key lime juice when making key lime desserts. Key limes are so little and each individual one contains so little juice, I would go absolutely nutso bananas squeezing enough for a key lime pie or my famous key lime mousse cake.

I don't know why these "standards" exist. Use what you can. If it's between baking something you want and you only have bottled or not baking it at all, I say go for it. It's not like you're using spam or something to replace prime rib.

[chef chicklet]

Good point about the key limes. Not to mention when you spend a buck on a lemon and there is absoluely NO juice. That always make me so happy. Thanks for your insight, you're very helpful.

I have a very unpredictable lemon tree. I got plenty of lemons the year before, and last year, not too many. Good to know you can freeze the juice.

[erica]

Yes, I sometimes buy the Santa Cruz bottled juice. I drink it with water. But it won't win any taste tests when compared with the real thing!

[goodhealthgourmet]

i'm with erica - santa cruz organic is the only bottled lemon [or lime] juice i can stand, but i try to use fresh whenever possible. it's always just so much better!

[todao]

I wouldn't have it in my kitchen. I buy lemons whenever I can, juice them and freeze the juice in ice cube trays. When frozen, I relocate them to plastic bags and store them in the freezer.

[chef chicklet]

Freezing them doesn't add extra water and dilute the juice?
Lemons are pretty pricey again, here anyway.

[bw2082]

huh? Freezing is juts a phase change from liquid to solid. You're not adding water to the thing and diluting it.

[chef chicklet]

oh I thought that ice crystal sometimes also form Sorry, thinking of ice cream.

[Rick]

Please realize that when freezing ANYTHING the process of going from solid to liquid does not ADD water. Something may turn watery after being defrosted but that's a result of how the item froze and not additional water magically being created by the freezing process. Freezing does not create water.

[chef chicklet]

That's a topic for another thread rick! get going on it! Because some people do get icy stuff with ice cream???

[Rick]

Chef, ice in ice cream would be a result of water in one the ingredients, i.e. milk and cream still contains water. If it's not being stirred well enough then that gives it a change for a large ice crystal to form, but the act of freezing itself did not add additional water/ice into the ice cream, water that was already present formed a crystal upon which another crystal built . . . and you end up with ice chunks.

If you take a pound of water, freeze it, then defrost it, you'll end up with a pound of water, freezing cannot add water to anything.

[chef chicklet]

I haven't experienced any ice in my own preparations of ice cream, but I did read on another thread where a few people were having that issue. Great information thanks!

[maisonbistro]

I use it - but selectively. If the lemon flavour is the main one highlighted- I will squeeze real ones. But, like today, I was making my NE style cheesecake. It calls for some lemon juice just to add some tang to the cheese. I didn't think twice about using the bottled stuff. For lemon bars, I would use the real stuff.

[chef chicklet]

So as an ingredient in a small amount where you don't particularly have lemon as the main ingredient, you use it.

What about in a marinade would use it there?

[weem]

Agreed, maisonbistro. It depends on the purpose. If a recipe calls for a half-teaspoon of lemon juice to boost a flavor, it seems a shame to waste a whole lemon just to achieve that (unless I happen to be in the mood for fresh lemonade while I'm cooking). On the other hand, a recipe like lemon squares is additionally enhanced by lemon zest, which doesn't come from a bottle, so for those I'll buy actual lemons.

Living alone and only trying to please myself, I'm not adverse to shortcuts like certain bottled and canned ingredients. So sure, I keep a bottle of lemon juice in the fridge. But now and then, for example if I'm taking food to a party, it's worth splurging on the finer ingredients.

One thing about the bottled lemon juice that slightly alarms me, though (at least the store brand bottle I have on hand). It claims to be "lemon juice from concentrate", and yet the "nutrition facts" chart lists zero calories, zero anything. I'm not sure how that's possible. Not that that's stopped me from using it, of course. :-)

[julesrules]

I think any nutritional "value" would be on the order of 0.000x so I'm not surprised they round down to 0! No sugar, no fat, no protein... essentially no calories. It's basically water with citric acid and some fibre from any pulp.