Zest-related hint: if you are shaving off the the peel rather than grating it, and your recipe calls for sugar, you can put the sugar and the shaved peel into a food processor with the metal blade and blend them together. This avoids any little nasty bits of peel in the final dish, and makes sure that the full flavor of the citrus is evenly spread throughout whatever you are making. (Banana bread made with a generous amount of lime peel using this technique is sublime.)
Anyone like Limoncello? A friend made a batch. He had to zest cases of lemons. It was delicious and packed a punch (he used grain alcohol in his recipe). However, as we sat sipping, he described the numerous scrapes he suffered while zesting all the lemons. He described in vivid detail how he bled into the bowl. Blech.
Can I please have the recipe???
double post. sorry
The lemon ice I made was with the recipe included in my frozen yogurt maker’s instruction book. It is just lemons (juiced), sugar syrup (sugar and water boiled) and lemon zest. I can look up the specifics.
Epicurious’ recipe for limoncello, except he used grain alcohol instead of vodka. He waited 30 days before trying it.
Similarly, I made a plum liqueur by piercing plums with a knitting needle, putting them into large mason jars, adding vodka and some brown sugar (2 Tb IIRC). Put the lid on. Turn over monthly, then in 4 months enjoy.
You took the time to look up all that and come in and criticize a perfectly good thread? Why did you bother?
I agree - I use a lot of zest in baking and cooking, and the microplane is one of the best kitchen utensils I’ve ever bought. It’s also great for grating fresh parmesan.
You know, FYI and to whom it may concern. One doesn’t need to run out their local overpriced kitchen supply store and buy some special microplane or lemon zester. All you need is a knife- simply cut off some of the lemon peel, avoiding the pith. Make a fine julienne of the peel and dice finely. Simple as that.
(You can also use the fine side of a box grater if you have one of those.)
But as I say… The only tools you really need in a kitchen is a sharp knife, a spoon, and a fork.
There is also another way of zesting that I was “taught by Jacques Pepin” (PBS) 
I’m trying to remember the exact mechanics and details, but it escapes me at the moment.
IIRC, Jacques would place a piece of parchment paper against the outside of a fine grater and roll the the lemon (or orange) against the parchment and a very fine grating and zesting of the peel would accumulate on the parchment paper from the texture underneath (I call it composite or tracing grating). Then it was any extremely easy matter to transport the zest on the parchment paper and funnel it into your recipe.
It seems like that was what he did, anyways. (I could be mixing this up with some other technique, however.)
If you sharpen one edge of a spork’s handle, you could get by with even less. 
However, I for one, enjoy gadgetry in the kitchen (to say nothing of other rooms).
Oh, definitely nothing wrong with gadgets and all of that. But some cooks have to ask themselves, do I really want a microplane that I might use a few times a year, or do I want to eat today?
I saw in an accidental scene on a cooking show a great gadget for peeling garlic. He smacked the clove with the cutting board.
Heh. A bunch of the Food Network folks smash it with their butcher knife. I like the rubbery tube you roll it in–it’s like magic!
You obviously don’t have a microplane. I use that baby all the time - lemon zest, fresh nutmeg, Parmesan, ginger, chocolate, etc. etc.
I hear you on the gadgets. But there is a line between “gadget I use once a year” and “gadget that improves my food because it makes things easier.” A little lemon zest goes a long way in many different dishes, and I’m more apt to add it because it’s easy to do. Same with all the other things I listed. There’s dumb gadgets out there, no doubt about that, but the microplane isn’t one of them.
I recently bought a microplane, and it is infinitely easier to use than any other grater. Only $15, and I use it much more than a few times a year. Lemon and lime zest are great in marinades. Use either mixed with 16 oz cream cheese, 1/2 c sugar, and a jar of lemon or lime curd. Pour into a graham cracker crust and refrigerate - yum!
You all seem to be missing the point. What’s the use of a microplane, when it leaves you unable to afford lemons or chocolate…both luxury foods. It may seem ridiculous to you, but all things being relative I can guarantee that if I use my a knife or my Grandma’s 40 year old box grater, I will have an equal or superior product when compared to your high falutin microplaned zest. Until that Microplane somehow alters the elemental composition of lemon peel and makes it taste like mama’s apple fuckin’ pie, I ain’t buyin one (…or possibly if there was a rebate coupon for a free blow job from William’s Sonoma.)
Oh, OK. I see where you are going. You think a mandoline is a better gadget, verdad?
:dubious: My microplane cost less than $4. I spend more than that to buy Parmesan or garlic. It’s certainly not all of my daily food budget. And if it is all of someone’s daily food budget, I suspect they’re not doing anything that would require a microplane, anyway.
… the seasoning packets in Raman noodles are already pretty finely ground.
All I have to say is BAAA!
That’s the language of sheeple.
Here’s another stupid question: how fine does a zester grate compared to a microplane? I’ve always used the latter since we have one (and it works great for the lemon bread recipe I have). The zester looks like it might leave you with little curls of rind rather than something finer.