The Advantages Of Cooking With Seedless Lemons

Learning to use the bright sunny flavor of lemon as you cook is a game changer. A quick squeeze into a simple skillet of butter-seared halibut balances all the richness and creates an elevated dinner. Tart lemon juice and aromatic lemon zest are the keys to making a whole range of lemony recipes better than the sum of their parts. But the major drawback of this acid-balancing fruit is those slippery lemon seeds that escape into your food no matter how hard you try to keep them out. Lemon growers have your back –- they've successfully developed a variety of seedless lemons that are making their way from orchards to your local stores.

The benefits of a lemon without seeds go far beyond fishing out a stray pip here or there from a glass of your refreshing homemade pink lemonade. Think of all the time you can save because you won't need to wash extra strainers when you juice a batch of lemons. Seedless lemons also tend to have thinner skins, giving you more juice. And you can easily slice the whole lemon to use in recipes without stopping to pluck unwanted seeds out.

Seedless lemon trees have been a long time coming. Trees naturally growing seedless navel oranges were discovered in Brazil around 1810 and then adopted widely throughout Californian citrus production soon after. A seedless lemon tree was introduced to America by the USDA in 1939, but because it produced fewer lemons than a standard lemon tree, the fruit didn't become popular with growers. New varieties have finally been carefully selected, giving us the convenience of no seeds while making them financially worthwhile for the farmer.

Once you've found a bag of these time-saving lemons, you'll be on your way to effortless lemony recipes. Garnishing a whole roasted chicken with lovely seared lemon slices is a snap, and cutting a perfect lemon wheel garnish for your next cocktail will be frustration-free with no seeds in the way. With no need to remove the seeds that mar your perfect lemon curd and Hollandaise sauce, you'll want to reach for these user-friendly lemons any time you need the lift of lemon in your kitchen.