The lemon is a fruit that could be described as all-terrain. It is very versatile in the kitchen and we can include it in countless recipes. A few drops of lemon are enough to add a unique, acidic touch to vinaigrettes, sauces or directly to any preparation – such as meat, fish or soups – to enhance the flavor. Always without overdoing it to prevent the personality of the dish from being spoiled by the taste of lemon.
It is essential for macerating certain foods, such as when making ceviche. And its zest is also used to give juiciness and flavor to cakes and other desserts. There are countries like Morocco where pickles are prepared with lemon and salt which are then used in other recipes like salads, soups or their tagines (stews prepared in typical containers with a round bottom and shaped lid clay cone).
In addition, it is very popular among home remedies to treat – or better cope with – a cold. Surely with the drop in temperatures and when colds start to appear, you have already prepared a soothing infusion – and full of vitamin C – with lemon zest and other ingredients like ginger root, a few clove seeds. cloves and honey.
But lemon – its juice and its zest – do not only have culinary properties. In ancient Greece, it was used as a preservative to keep certain foods, such as meat, fresh for longer or to disinfect water. And the Romans used lemon oil to scare away insects by applying it to their clothes.
Lemon is one of the most commonly used natural products in homes as an ingredient to create powerful cleaners. If we also add it to vinegar, the mixture becomes one of the most powerful to tackle almost any cleaning task. So when using lemons in any of your recipes, don’t throw away the zest. We’ll show you how to make an economical and effective cleaning product at home without much effort.
- We will accumulate all the lemon peels which we throw into a container.
- When we have enough, we will fill it with white cleaning vinegar.
- The main thing now is to let this mixture sit for several days – at least 15 – so that the skin releases all its benefits and joins those of the vinegar.
- After this time we will filter the liquid and we can completely discard the lemon zest.
- We’re going to put our homemade cleaner in a spray bottle, so it will be much easier for us to use it on the surfaces we want to disinfect.
- To make the formula less aggressive, it can be diluted in water for use.
- We will of course avoid using it to clean natural stones like marble in kitchens or bathrooms, as this can cause some damage. The best thing to do if you think you’re dealing with a delicate surface is to test a corner with a little cleaner first and wait to see how it reacts.
Where to use it
This mixture will give us very good results for cleaning different areas of the house. We’ll give you some ideas, so you know what surfaces you can use it on:
- We can use the mixture as a disinfectant on kitchen counters, bathroom rooms, tiled walls or we can even pour a small amount into the bucket of water for washing which will help us disinfect our floors , leaving a feeling of freshness on the floor. atmosphere and very good citrus smell.
- In case it hasn’t crossed your mind, it’s also a very effective formula for cleaning windows and mirrors that you have distributed around the house.
- And it is very useful for neutralizing bad odors, for example in the trash, thanks to lemon essential oils macerated in vinegar.
The power of citric and acetic acid
Lemon is a powerful cleaner thanks to citric acid, which is also an excellent disinfectant – which will help us in the fight against bacteria and fungi – and has a high degreasing power. We can also use it as a bleach. This fruit is therefore a great ally for removing grease stains in the kitchen, as a cleaning product, as a deodorant to eliminate bad odors or to eliminate certain stains on white clothes.
We find the same characteristics that we attribute to lemon as a cleaner in vinegar: it is an effective degreaser and disinfectant thanks to acetic acid. The two ingredients together make them very powerful and capable of eliminating bacteria and germs from any surface without having to use other, more aggressive products that can be found on the market.
For purposes related to cleaning, the vinegar usually used is distilled white which can be found in the pharmacy section of the supermarket or local store you frequent. It has a higher acidity level, but doesn’t leave stains like apple cider vinegar or balsamic vinegar would.
Like lemon, vinegar also has some use for washing clothes, but in this case we would use it as a fabric softener, adding a few drops to the washing machine drawer; This is an option to consider for people with atopic and delicate skin that can be attacked by commercial softeners.
With baking soda
If you want – or need – the cleaner to be even stronger, you can add a little baking soda. Together they form the perfect triad. To make a cleanser with these three ingredients, we will make a paste with the mixture we already had of lemon and vinegar. We will use a small amount to which we will add the baking soda powder until we obtain the desired consistency.
With this paste we can clean without much effort countertops, sinks and other surfaces exposed to grease accumulation in the kitchen such as ovens or microwaves. But it will also be a great ally, for example, to put an end once and for all to the limescale accumulated in the taps of the house, also giving them back the shine of the first day.
