Lemon extract and lemon juice, both are essential for enhancing the taste of your recipes. They add the flavor of lemon to recipes yet are not obligatory substitutes.
However, you can use lemon extract instead of lemon juice when preparing foods. In this article, we will know detailed about lemon extract versus lemon juice and some relevant factors.
Is Lemon Extract Ideal Substitute for Lemon Juice?
For some cases, yes! But you have to clarify whether it is sweet or salty. It seems you are cooking because you mentioned lemon extract. After all, most chefs would only want to use it in a delicious recipe.
Lemon juice is simply juice yields that are extracted straight from fresh lemons. Conversely, lemon extract can be called super juice of lemons. It is extracted from lemons also but with oil or alcohol.
Sometimes, you can use lemon extract substitute and juice interchangeably. But usually, both the juice and extract have several properties in the recipe. The juice has such tartness and acidity that it cannot be reproduced by an extract, usually alcohol or oil based. Remember that the extract still gives you a sharp touch without biting the acid.
During cooking, the extract of lemon juice can make the cook more wet or acidic, especially if it is required. Since lemon extract has a much higher concentration of aroma, you only need half of the peel extract to obtain the same citrus aroma.
Lemon Extract versus Lemon Juice
As lemon juice and lemon extract have mostly prepared from lemons, the difference lies in the lemon’s parts and its uses. Lemon juice has come out from the fruit. Lemon extract is prepared with lemon zest or peel and with alcohol.
Since lemon extract seizes the taste of the fruit as a whole, and lemon juice has become less sweet and more acidic, the lemon extract will not replace all recipes.
Try lemon extract in marinating chicken and water in place of lemon juice along with herbs and olive oil. Also, you can use lemon extract in place of lemon juice in cookies.
The lemon extracts do not taste like lemon juice, so it changes the taste of recipes where it replaces juice. So, lemon extract cannot be used as a replacement for lemon juice in cases where heartburn or acidity plays a role.
Please don’t use lemon extract in a drink such as a daiquiri lemon or lemonade as the substitute of lemon juice. That’s because acidity and sweetness have an ‘unpleasant’ taste and do not work well.
Verdict
Lemon juice supplies luster and acidity to food. You can use them to add some flavor to recipes. Drinking pure lemon juice is a nutritious and more delicious way to taste a drink or food. It is also the most reliable way to increase the number of nutrients, and the extract gives little.
And finally, I would say lemon extract cannot be a substitute for lemon juice in most cases. But you can use them a bit. In one word, lemon juice is more nutritious than the extract.