Choose your gear. A serrated knife, like a bread knife, is ideal. The small teeth on this kitchen staple act like a mini-grater, effortlessly scraping off the outer skin layer. A chef's knife or ...

Lots of recipes call for the zest of a lemon. In fact, lemon zest may even be a more common ingredient than lemon juice, although one of our favorite lemon-focused sweets, lemon curd, calls for both ...

To zest a lemon, you can use a Microplane, citrus zester, vegetable peeler, box grater, or a knife. While a Microplane yields the finest zest, a vegetable peeler or knife provides larger ribbons. The ...

Chances are, you already have a zester somewhere in your kitchen. It’s the small hand tool with the perforated, angled head that has drifted to the back bottom of a drawer. If that’s the case, then ...

For fast, easy zesting, nothing beats a microplane (see "Kitchen Essentials: Our 10 Favorite Tools," on sfgate.com/food). But if you want garnish-quality zest, this ...