Lemon zester
Encyclopedia
Zest (ingredient)
Zest is a food ingredient that is prepared by scraping or cutting from the outer, colorful skin of citrus fruits such as lemon, orange, citron, and lime. Zest is used to add flavor to foods....
from lemon
Lemon
The lemon is both a small evergreen tree native to Asia, and the tree's ellipsoidal yellow fruit. The fruit is used for culinary and non-culinary purposes throughout the world – primarily for its juice, though the pulp and rind are also used, mainly in cooking and baking...
s and other citrus fruit. A kitchen zester is approximately four inches long, with a handle and a curved metal end, the top of which is perforated with a row of round holes with sharpened rims. To operate, the zester is pressed with moderate force against the fruit and drawn across its peel
Peel (fruit)
Peel, also known as rind or skin, is the outer protective layer of a fruit or vegetable which could be peeled off. The rind is usually the botanical exocarp, but the term exocarp does also include the hard cases of nuts, which are not named peels since they are not peeled off by hand or peeler, but...
. The rims cut the zest from the pith
Peel (fruit)
Peel, also known as rind or skin, is the outer protective layer of a fruit or vegetable which could be peeled off. The rind is usually the botanical exocarp, but the term exocarp does also include the hard cases of nuts, which are not named peels since they are not peeled off by hand or peeler, but...
underneath. The zest is cut into ribbons, one drawn through each hole.
Other tools are also sometimes called zesters because they too are able to separate the zest from a citrus fruit. For example, when Microplane
Microplane
Microplane is a registered trademark of Grace Manufacturing Inc., a company that makes photo etched steel tools for grating, grinding and sanding.-Kitchen graters:...
discovered that its surform
Surform
A surform tool features perforated sheet metal and resembles a food grater. A surform tool consists of a steel strip with holes punched out and the rim of each hole sharpened to form a cutting edge. The strip is mounted in a carriage or handle...
type wood rasps had become popular as food grater
Grater
A grater is a kitchen utensil used to grate foods into fine pieces. It was invented by François Boullier in the 1540s.-Uses:...
s and zesters, it adapted the woodworking
Woodworking
Woodworking is the process of building, making or carving something using wood.-History:Along with stone, mud, and animal parts, wood was one of the first materials worked by early humans. Microwear analysis of the Mousterian stone tools used by the Neanderthals show that many were used to work wood...
tools and marketed them as "zester / graters".
An additional form and tool of zesting or zester is called "spin zesting" adopted from the tool known as the Spin Zester from Zip Zester.com "Spin Zesting" allows perfect abstraction of the citrus in seconds without sacrificing safety of having the blade close to your fingers. 95% of the zest is abstracted leaving out the bitter pith matter.