Food fans-can you tell the difference in fresh vs not fresh citrus juice in a recipe?

[AskNott]

I’ll give you an example where it made a big difference. In the early development of Gatorade at the U. of Florida, Dr. Cade used ReaLemon for flavoring. Lots of it. One of the non-fresh things in ReaLemon is turpic something or other. Something else in the Gatorade recipe reacted with it, and the finished Gatorade smelled and tasted like turpentine. :eek: They got that sorted out, and didn’t use ReaLemon after that. After some research indicated that it worked, the U of F sold it to Stokely Van Camp, and Gatorade has been sold to a few other companies since then.

I’m writing here in reference to the ReaLemon, not as an endorsement of Gatorade. That’s a whole 'nother thread.

[VinylTurnip]

@The Swan

Typically, lime pulp adds very little to a recipe, which is why lime juice is usually called far.

I must note one exception: the caipirinha. Not the same if it’s juice only, and making one with reconstituted (squeeze) lime juice is probably a capital crime in Brazil. (Or should be.)

[LANmom]

Palates each are different. I can always taste the bottled stuff. I have a real simple solution and cheap if you are interested. I buy bags of fresh lemons at Gordons Food Service (the lemons are much cheaper this way) or such place, warm them, roll them, squeeze the juice from them into small glass jars like boullion comes in (baby food maybe?) Then I freeze it in the jars (leave a little space to allow for expansion). When I need some juice I just nuke it a few seconds, pour off what I need and put it back in the freezer. I have done this for many many years and refreezing it is no problem. This is the only way I could get my boys to eat vegetables when they were young. They loved lemon juice on broccoli, green beans, and spinach.

[LANmom]

@Wee Bairn

I can see maybe if you are making a key lime pie or lemon curd, but even then I’m not sold. But if you are talking the equivalent of the juice of one lemon or lime in a recipe with other ingredients, be honest- can you really tell the difference? If not, why do cooks (such as AB) make such a big deal about minute details like these?
I don’t cook by the way, it just makes me oddly annoyed when I see shows where they tell the home cook to go through all these added steps and costs that I don’t think affect the finished product.

I sure agree with you about the extra steps and added costs in many cases!!Martha is particularly prone to this. I remember watching her make a SIMPLE Yorkshire pudding one time and was exhausted just watching her. One thing is clear, those TV cooks do not have to wash their own dishes or pay for the foods out of their own pockets or they would not waste so much nor use so many unnecessary seperate containers!. It drives me crazy. (ok so I’m a little OC myself maybe…)
For cooking, do what tastes good to you. My sister eats things like brussel sprouts, parsnips etc. which I think taste like ear wax. She claims an educated palate I claim her taste buds are DEAD thats why she can’t find those horrid after-tastes.