Well, here’s some good news for those without a citrus zester: YOU DON’T NEED ONE! While it’s true that the easiest way to zest a lemon is using a dedicated microplane (aka zester), it’s absolutely possible to get that lemon zest even without any special tools! (For those with very limited drawer space, this really is good to know.)

Before getting to the HOW-TO, just for giggles, let’s look at what zest is. Citrus fruits are the source of zest. It’s the yellow skin of a lemon, the orange skin of an orange, or the outer layer of any citrus fruit.

And it’s loaded with citrus oil (where most of the aroma and flavor of citrus is concentrated). If you pierce the skin of a lemon, for instance, you’ll probably see a small spray of what looks like lemon juice coming from the peel. This is actually the oil!

Underneath any citrus skin, you’ll find a thick white layer known as the pith. It’s somewhat bitter and doesn’t contain much flavor and will detract from what you’re trying to accomplish by adding zest. So when zesting, you really want to avoid cutting into it.

Now to the point: If you don’t have a zester, you can rely on three common tools to get the skin off your citrus—a paring knife, a vegetable peeler, or a cheese grater. It goes without saying, though, that because of the above-mentioned pith, you want to be ultra careful not to go to deep into the fruit’s skin.

Technique is obvious with the grater, but the vegetable peeler or paring knife calls for a little more finesse. Let’s use a lemon as the example in this tutorial: Start by cutting off a strip of yellow skin. The peeler should easily grab just the zest; using a knife calls for more precision. And by the way, if in fact you do catch some pith when cutting, the knife will do a good job of removing it.

Then place the strip of lemon skin flat on a cutting surface and cut it lengthwise into very thin strips, julienning the peel.

Next, gather the strips together and cut them crosswise into very fine dice. You want the pieces to be as small as possible to replicate the zest that’s produced by a microplane. This ultra-fine dice is packed with lemon flavor and can be used in any recipe that calls for lemon zest. The same process works well for zesting oranges, limes and other citrus fruits, too.

If your recipe doesn’t call for the juice of the zested fruit, wrap it tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for later use.

If you love lemon, then you probably have a good assortment of lemon-oriented recipes, already. But how about one more? This is for a pancake that folks who attend our community’s annual Firemen’s Pancake Breakfast, say is fantastic! We’re told they use a recipe found on the site, www.cookingclassy.com. See what you think.