A zester (also, citrus zester or lemon zester) is a
kitchen utensil for obtaining
zest from
lemons and other
citrus fruit. A kitchen zester is approximately long, with a handle and a curved metal end, the top of which is perforated with a row of round holes with sharpened rims. To operate, the zester is pressed with moderate force against the fruit and drawn across its
peel
Peel or Peeling may refer to:
Places Australia
* Peel (Western Australia)
* Peel Island, Queensland
*Peel, New South Wales
* Peel River (New South Wales)
Canada
* Peel Parish, New Brunswick
* Peel, New Brunswick, an unincorporated communi ...
. The rims cut the zest from the
pith underneath. The zest is cut into ribbons, one drawn through each hole.
Other tools are also sometimes called zesters because they too are able to separate the zest from a citrus fruit. For example, when
Microplane discovered that its
surform
A surform tool (also surface-forming tool) features perforated sheet metal and resembles a food grater. A surform tool consists of a steel strip with holes punched out and the rim of each hole sharpened to form a cutting edge. The strip is moun ...
type
wood rasp
A rasp is a coarse form of file used for coarsely shaping wood or other material. Typically a hand tool, it consists of a generally tapered rectangular, round, or half-round sectioned bar of case hardened steel with distinct, individually cut ...
s had become popular as food
graters and zesters, it adapted the
woodworking tools and marketed them as "zester / graters".
See also
*
Grater
*
Oroshigane
, also known as , are graters used in Japanese cooking.
differ significantly from Western-style graters, as they produce a much finer grating. Traditionally, these graters were tin-coated copper plates with many small spikes gouged out of th ...
*
Surform
A surform tool (also surface-forming tool) features perforated sheet metal and resembles a food grater. A surform tool consists of a steel strip with holes punched out and the rim of each hole sharpened to form a cutting edge. The strip is moun ...
References
External links
{{Kitchen Tools
Food preparation utensils
Bartending equipment