ALL ABOUT LEMONS

With a rind that’s just as important as the juice inside, tart, fresh lemons add brightness to both sweet and savory foods. And unlike other fruits, their quality is consistent year-round.

VARIETIES: There are basically two common varieties of lemons in supermarkets — Eurekas and Lisbons. Telling them apart isn’t necessarily important because their flavor is similar. And depending on climate and conditions, both varieties can produce large or small fruit that’s either thick-or thin-skinned. Either large or small lemons will work for most recipes, so choose the fruit based on whether you’ll be using it primarily for zest or for juice.

Lemon zest comes from peeling or scraping strips of the thin, yellow outer layer of skin called the rind. It contains an essential oil that gives recipes an intense lemon flavor without adding