Choosing Fruit for Infusing

Often in infusing, you will be using the zest of fruit.  This is most common with citrus flavored infusions.  Here are a few tips for picking citrus fruits to zest:

The condition of the outside of the fruit is what's important when choosing fruit for zesting, since this is the part that you want to use.  Try to pick citrus that has a bright color and few blemishes on the skin.  Most citrus will have a coating of food-grade wax on the outside, and may have pesticides. 

Organic fruit is available at most supermarkets and it won't have pesticides.  If you can find fruit that hasn't been coated in wax, use that.  However, this will be hard to find unless you have a farmer's market.  Even the organic fruit that I have found in stores has been coated in wax.

If you can't find wax-free or organic fruit, you can use any fruit available.  Just make sure to thoroughly wash the fruit as I explain in Tips on Zesting.

My Zester

I use the OXO Good Grips Lemon Zester for zesting citrus.  I like the rubber handle, and it does a great job of removing the zest without the pith.

Tips on Zesting

Many infusions involving citrus use just the zest from the fruit.  To get the zest, you must remove just the outer layer of the peel.  You do not want to get any of the white pith underneath.  Getting pith in the infusion can cause it to become bitter.

I use an OXO Zester.  However, many people prefer a microplane zester.  Whichever you use, you'll want to follow these tips:

Thoroughly wash the citrus to remove any pesticides and wax.  Use hot water and a Vegetable Brush to remove as much wax as possible.  Dry the fruit.

Now, find the biggest bowl you have.  This will make it easier to ensure that you collect all of the zest.  Gently scrape your zester down the sides of the fruit over the bowl.  Make sure you aren't getting any pith.  It is more important to avoid getting the pith than to get every scrap of zest.  For example, the lemon on the left has not been zested, the one on the right has been:

Once the fruit is zested, set it aside for other use.  I usually juice them using a juicer and store the juice in the fridge for other recipes.    Lemons and limes are great for making Sour Mix.