QandAs: Food

What is a Zester?

Answer:
Having cooked for many years, I thought I knew most

of the ordinary tools used in the kitchen, but I’m discovering I’ve still got a lot to learn. For one thing I never had a zester.

A zester is a tool that removes zest from citrus fruits.
“What is zest?” you ask.

Zest comes from the exterior of the peel (or rind) on citrus fruits, and is used as flavoring for food and mixed drinks in dozens of recipes. It’s removed in very thin layers. One of the most common is lemon zest.

Zester tools have a handle with a foot-shaped blade and sharpened “toes.“ There are little holes in the toe area, and as the zester is scraped across the outside layer of the fruit, it produces thread-like strips of zest.

No matter what type of fruit is being used, be sure to scrape only the colored portion, not the underlying white layers which can create a bitter taste in the recipe.

I was one of those that always thought a grater could scrape the peel for zest, but a grater is used only when the recipe calls for grated zest.

Zesters became popular in the 1980s when featured by Delia Smith in her cooking course, and has become an intrinsic part of kitchen tools for the modern cook or would-be chef. Cost of the tool runs between $11.99 and $19.99.


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