citrus press
A lemon squeezer is a kitchen appliance used to squeeze juice out of citrus fruits such as lemons or limes . The citrus press is more versatile and can be used to squeeze larger fruits such as oranges , grapefruits and grapefruits , often using exchangeable cones . This device is also based on the much older principle of the lemon squeezer.
The pulp of the citrus fruits has a very high water content. The fruit juice can be easily squeezed out of the segments, which are only enclosed by thin skins, and the juice tubes with little pressure. That's why lemon juice can also be obtained simply by squeezing the half-cut lemon by hand. However, it is more productive to use a lemon squeezer.
Lemon juice is used around the world for cooking and making beverages. It has been used in many recipes in Europe since the Middle Ages. However, for a long time lemons were only squeezed by hand. Lemon squeezers can only be identified from the early 18th century. Since then, various models with different functional principles have been developed that are made from a variety of different materials. By June 2007, over 300 patents for new lemon squeezers had been registered. Depending on whether the lemon squeezer is intended for the household or for catering, there are small, handy models that require more effort, bulky models that can be operated with little effort, or electrically operated presses.
history
Early lemon squeezers
The oldest known lemon squeezers were found in the Turkish city of Kütahya and date from the first quarter of the 18th century. These ceramic presses in the typical style of Turkish pottery of the 18th century have a superficial similarity to today's devices with press cones, but are constructed differently. The press cone is hollow and perforated at the base. Inside it contains a column that ends in a hole in the bottom of the press. Because of this structure, juice does not flow through the floor until the juice level has reached a certain height and can flow over the edge of the cylinder lying within the cone. Such specimens were not mass-produced, but were specially made to make it easier to prepare the lemon juice- containing drink sherbet, which was popular at the time . Another preserved Turkish lemon press dates from 1741. Lemons do not naturally grow in northern Turkey, but were imported in large quantities to Constantinople in the 17th and 18th centuries .
In the 18th century, lemon presses were also in use in Europe. These probably worked mainly on the model of potato presses: tong-like devices that, like modern garlic presses, press the fruit with a punch into a cylinder with holes from which the juice flows. The writer Jean Paul mentions such lemon pushers as early as 1798 : "... I say, if you don't finish the minute berry on every hour cluster with at least a few lemon pushers - - - what would become of it in the end?"
Presumably, one did not necessarily use specially made lemon pushers, but simply used the existing potato presses for lemons. This is suggested by a quote from The Cheese Dairy in the Vehfreude by Jeremias Gotthelf from 1850 about the customers of somewhat dubious traveling traders: "These poor devils often fare in markets like the lemons at S. im B .: there they are pressed into punch three different times, the first time with the thumb, the second time with the fist, the third time with a potato pusher. ”This quote clearly describes that mechanical extraction is ultimately superior to extraction by hand.
In England, lemon squeezers did not become widespread until the second half of the 19th century, and probably later in France, which suggests that they were not mentioned in dictionaries.
Mechanization in the 19th century
At the end of the 19th century a large number of patents were registered for new lemon squeezers. To date (June 2007) the United States Patent and Trademark Office has registered over 200 patents for lemon squeezers, the majority of which were filed between 1880 and 1910. Lewis S. Chichester filed for the oldest US patent on July 3, 1860. It was a pincer-shaped model made of cast iron. According to the patent description, the Chichester model could be operated with less effort than conventional presses.
A similar wooden device has been passed down among students at Trinity College in Connecticut since 1857 . Originally a utensil for the preparation of punch, William W. Niles, later Bishop of New Hampshire , established the custom of passing the lemon squeezer on to the most promising subsequent vintage on “Class Day” . As a result, fights and rivalries developed over the award, the Lemon Squeezer was subsequently stolen several times, so that in the meantime several supposedly original devices are in circulation. Today, the latest version of the lemon squeezer is only used when the university president squeezes a lemon while the students are convened to toast the upcoming year.
At the turn of the 19th / 20th century Patents filed in the 19th century show a variety of different operating principles. They range from the small model for use at the table, with which individual lemon wedges can be squeezed out over a glass or dish, to mechanically complex equipment that is firmly attached to the kitchen table or counter with screw clamps. It is noticeable that almost all of these patents only exert pressure on the lemon or the lemon half without turning the lemon half. The patents vary mainly in the various mechanisms in which this pressure acting on the fruit is generated. Usually the leverage or the pressing effect of screw presses was used. How large the proportion of devices actually ever produced for the market under these patents can no longer be traced.
U.S. Patent for a Hurley Lemon Squeezer, 1887
Dunlap, 1890
Barrett, 1893
Wilson, 1886
Morgan, 1896
Walker, 1897
Filler, 1910
Carroll, 1915
Zaksenberg Hadarit
A citrus lever press that is widely used in gastronomy worldwide is the Hadarit developed by Rabbi Isaac Zaksenberg in 1929. The steel and polyamide device, which weighs over 9 kg , is still manufactured in Israel today .
The "Egg of Columbus" - lemon squeezers made of pressed glass
“Then they talked about the lemon press made of glass, the 'Egg of Columbus', as he called it. That is, he spoke and she yawned inwardly, understanding and sympathetically. 'When you consider in earlier times, terrible. You could get a cramp of the thumb, and half the juice stayed in the lemon and the unnecessary seeds were in the glass. But now, with the glass lemon press for 50 Heller, the juice runs like a clear stream into the lower channel, while the unnecessary seeds lie in the upper channel. The shell itself is dry inside, like the Gobi desert. Only now could a usurer and a cocotte say: 'I squeezed it like a lemon!' " Peter Altenberg says in the prose sketch Flirt , published in 1900, the protagonist of his beloved one and thus describes vividly that the small lemon squeezers made of pressed glass , which against At the end of the 19th century, when kitchen appliances for household use appeared, they not only worked in a captivatingly simple manner, but were also inexpensive and affordable for everyone.
In the cookbook Das Hauswesen by Maria Susanne Kübler , first published in 1850 , it says: “To get all the juice out of a lemon, you break the peeled lemon apart, cut each piece lengthways and squeeze it out. If, on the other hand, cross-sections are made, most of the juice cells remain uninjured and, consequently, very little juice is obtained. Recently the small, excellent glass lemon squeezer is probably no longer missing in any household. "This glass" Columbus Egg "was the first lemon squeezer outside of Turkey, with which you not only squeeze lemons, but also by rotating the lemon half on a corrugated cone could squeeze the last drop of juice out of the fruit. Basically, this principle has remained unchanged to this day and embodies the proverbial lemon squeezer, a term that in a figurative sense also applies to buildings such as the St. Engelbert Church by the architect Dominikus Böhm in Cologne-Riehl , the dome of the Dresden Art Academy by Constantin Lipsius , vividly describes the top of the tower of the Bethanienkirche by Zweck & Voigt in Leipzig, the dome of the Temple of Divine Providence in Warsaw or the felt hats (Lemon Squeezer Hats) of the New Zealand Army. To this day, lemon squeezers are made from various materials based on this master model.
functionality
With all lemon squeezer models, pressure is always applied to the halved fruit, so that the skins holding the juice in the fruit burst open and the juice can run out. The lemon squeezer itself has to withstand this pressure, which is why soft, easily deformable materials are unsuitable. Because lemon juice is very acidic , only acid-resistant materials are suitable. Depending on the model, the entire unpeeled fruit, half a lemon or a lemon wedge is pressed.
Lemon tongs or squeezers, lever presses and small presses for individual wedges produce lemon juice exclusively with the help of the applied pressure. With lemon tongs , the fruit is squeezed in a cylinder or a hemisphere with a cylindrical, conical or hemispherical counterpart in a kind of tongs so that the juice runs out through holes in the cylinder. The seeds and pulp are retained inside. Originally, these presses were usually made of wood, but today they are also made of stainless metal. The juice comes out at the back of the press so that the juice flows along the outside of the lemon peel. The juice also absorbs essential oils from the peel.
This method is used in a further developed form in the lever presses commonly used in gastronomy . These are fixed, heavy devices. The pulp is crushed by the leverage of a hemisphere, which presses from above on the lemon half sitting on a cone. The escaping fruit juice is separated from the pulp and seeds by a filter or sieve . Modern lever presses are made of stainless steel.
Small lemon squeezers for juicing individual lemon wedges also work on the tongs principle. They are usually made of stainless steel or plastic. There are two different basic models that are available in different decorative variants, for example in the shape of a bird or a fish. In one model, the lemon wedge lies lengthways in a small tub, a tongue-like counterpart presses on the pulp from above and the juice emerges from holes below the hinge. In the other model, the lemon wedge lies transversely in tongs, which consist of two scoop-like parts, with the juice coming out on the sides of the scoops.
In the method that has become generally accepted for domestic use, the juice is pressed from the halved fruit by turning it back and forth on a spherical cone, the surface of which has a longitudinal rib structure. With mechanically or electrically powered devices, the cone rotates under the fruit. The juice runs into a collecting vessel along the longitudinal grooves. In contrast to presses, which only work by means of pressure, with this functional principle the skins surrounding the pulp are torn open by the rotary movement over the ribbed cone. In combination with the pressure required here, too, the juice comes out easily. The simplest model that makes use of this principle is the press cone on a simple handle. Such press cones are traditionally made of wood, but there are also copies made of plastic. The disadvantage of this model is that the stones and pulp are not retained and the sour lemon juice almost inevitably runs off the user's hands.
The originally widespread model made of pressed glass has a groove running around the cone in which the juice collects. The kernels and pulp are caught by a serrated ring on the edge of the channel. Some models also have a handle or a holding recess and a pouring spout. Today such presses are mostly made of plastic. Somewhat more elaborate two-part models made of metal or plastic consist of a removable upper part with the cone in the middle, with holes or slots through which the juice drains into the collecting vessel below. This vessel is usually provided with a chute, occasionally also with a handle. Presses that can be placed in or on a mug, into which the lemon juice can then drain, work in the same way. In almost all lemon squeezers of this type, the rubbing cone has equilateral and equiangular wedge cuts. However, a design study by Wilhelm Wagenfeld was able to show in the 1950s that unequal-sided and unequal-angled saw-shaped incisions lead to better utilization of the fruit. However, the saw-shaped ribs loosened significantly more skins from the lemon peel, so that another solution had to be found to filter the skins and pips off.
Lemon squeezers, in which the cone rotates under the lemon, are less strenuous. In a manually powered device, the movement of a hand crank is mechanically directed onto the cone so that it rotates. Because the fruit no longer has to be turned back and forth, but only a hand crank, these devices are more convenient to use and better suited for large quantities.
In electric lemon squeezers, the cone is driven by an electric motor - often a synchronous motor - via a reduction gear . The rotation starts when a half of the fruit is pressed onto the cone. Automatic juicers also take care of dividing the fruit, pressing it and ejecting it. They are suitable for larger quantities and are usually only used in catering.
So-called lemon pourers take a completely different approach: These are sharp-edged tubes, usually made of metal, sometimes also made of plastic, with ground slots that are screwed completely into a whole lemon. The cut edges of the pipe scratch the skins inside the lemon. If the lemon is now squeezed by hand, the juice comes out at the puncture point of the metal tube. This method is particularly suitable for small quantities. The lemon and its spout can be stored in the refrigerator for a few days.
Lever press
Electrically operated citrus press
Lemon Pourer
Lemon tongs
Schnitzel press Citro, ritterwerk
The one-way press
In gastronomy, small halved lemons or limes are sometimes packed in paper bags (or paper towels) and knotted. Guests can squeeze the juice by hand; The pulp and seeds are retained.
The bags and their contents can be disposed of as kitchen waste.
The lemon squeezer as a decorative object
The only lemon squeezer that is mainly known for its design is the Juicy Salif, designed by the French designer Philippe Starck in 1987 and produced by the Alessi company since 1990 . Starck is said to have had the idea for the design of the Juicy Salif when he saw a squid. Sketches on the paper coaster of a restaurant, where Starck recorded his idea while eating, prove this formal derivation of the design. The three-legged model made of cast aluminum with a rigid cone is 29 cm high and has neither a container for the juice, nor are the stones and pulp held back. In Umberto Eco's opinion , this is probably because “the client didn't want a real lemon squeezer, but a work of art and conversation piece that the buyer would desire as an abstract sculpture (which, by the way, is very beautiful to look at, as unsettling as a deep-sea monster) or at least as a prestige object , not as a household appliance that can be used in practice. ”Because of this design, among other things, Starck is considered to be a representative of a semantic- oriented design that values the communicative function of an object more than the practical. In response to criticism of the functionality of his object, Starck is in fact supposed to have stated that the actual function is not to squeeze lemons, but to initiate conversation. This becomes all the more clear in view of an anniversary edition with gold coating, which the Alessi company brought out in 2000 in an edition of 9999 numbered copies and provided with the warning: “Juicy Salif Gold is a collector's item. Do not use it as a lemon squeezer: Contact with acidic substances could damage the gold plating. "
As a result, Alessi and other producers of household items such as Koziol brought more designer lemon presses onto the market. However , creating a new conversation piece has not yet succeeded. The lemon squeezer Juicy Salif, on the other hand, has become a widely depicted and cited emblem not only for the Alessi company and designer Philippe Starck, but also for the postmodern love of design of the 1980s.
See also
literature
- John Carswell: The Lemon Squeezer . An Unique Form of Turkish Pottery. In: IVème congrès international d'art turc , pp. 29–45. Éditions de l'Université de Provence, Aix-en-Provence 1971. ISBN 2-85399-015-X (proceedings: September 10-15, 1971, English; contributions partly in French, German, Turkish).
Web links
- "Squeeze lemon" in sign language
- Construction of a lemon squeezer ( Memento from February 24, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
Individual evidence
- ↑ Queries at the US Patent Office at http://www.google.com/patents and at the European Patent Office at http://ep.espacenet.com , accessed June 10, 2007.
- ^ Carswell, p. 36
- ↑ A.Bongers: Turkish art and culture from the Ottoman period. Frankfurt am Main, 1985.
- ↑ Carswell, pp. 33-34.
- ↑ lever . In: Universal encyclopedia of the present and the past . 4., reworked. and greatly increased edition, Volume 8: Hannover – Johannek , Eigenverlag, Altenburg 1859, pp. 126–127 . - see 1) c) lemon squeezer
- ↑ https://www.projekt-gutenberg.org/jeanpaul/hesperus/hesp402.html Jean Paul, Hundposttage , Bayreuth, 1819: 43rd day.
- ↑ https://www.projekt-gutenberg.org/gotthelf/vehfreud/vehfr192.html .
- ↑ Carswell, pp. 29-30.
- ↑ US Patent No. 28967, patent description, available on the Internet at [1] .
- ^ The Lemon Squeezer ( Memento July 7, 2016 in the Internet Archive ).
- ↑ Traditions. In: Trinity College. Retrieved July 22, 2020 (American English).
- ↑ Website of the manufacturer, online ( Memento of the original dated August 2, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed August 30, 2014.
- ^ Peter Altenberg : prose sketches. Flirt in the Gutenberg-DE project The lemon squeezer made of glass also appears in another short story by Altenberg: “Why is there no innovator, no revolutionary, no initiator and scout among the inn owners and cafetiers ?! For example: to have a glass lemon squeezer for tea in order to get all the noble juice of the lemon out immediately and easily ?! "Peter Altenberg: Bilderbögen des kleine Lebens, 1909, p. 46.
- ^ MS Kübler, Das Hauswesen, 15th edition, Stuttgart, 1905, p. 418.
- ↑ St. Engelbert in Cologne-Riehl ( Memento from September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Erwin de Haar: In the Sign of Hope, 1961, p. 41.
- ↑ http://www.diggerhistory.info/pages-uniforms/slouch_hat_+.htm .
- ^ Wilhelm Wagenfeld: Thoughts and experiences of the form designer. In: designed industrial form in germany. Düsseldorf, 1954, pp. 35-42.
- ^ R. Roy: Creativity and Concept Design, Milton Keynes, 2004, pp. 15/16.
- ↑ Umberto Eco: Quasi the same in other words, Munich, 2006, p. 25.
- ↑ Bernhard E. Bürdek: Design: history, theory and practice of product design., Basel, 2005, p. 151.
- ↑ Ulrich Krohs: A theory of biological theories: status and content of functional statements and information-theoretical models Berlin, 2004, p. 161 fn. 13.
- ↑ quoted from Umberto Eco: Quasi the same in other words, Munich, 2006, p. 25.
- ↑ Guy Julier: The Culture of Design, London, 2000, p. 69; Peter Dormer: The Culture of Craft: Status and Future, Manchester 1996, p. 135.
