Brace yourself for the most amazing kitchen hack you’ll ever read between now and precisely three to five minutes from now. When you next see your friends, or you strike up a conversation with the fella bagging your groceries – you’ll be sure to tell them about this, won’t you? I mean, everyone needs to know that the squeezing of limes and lemons has been done wrong for years but you now know the correct way to do it – so you shall therefore enlighten the world on the correct squeezage procedure of limes and lemons.

I recently learned this trick, and it’s a good thing. I think I was well on my way to being diagnosed with lime-squeezing-induced carpal tunnel in my right hand. This hack has saved me, no doubt. It’s here to save you too.

All nonsense aside (and by nonsense, I mean completely necessary life-changing information) – this tip is really cool. You’ll need a lime or a lemon (was that not obvious?) and you’ll need a strong pair of tongs.

First things first: Roll the unsliced lime or lemon along the counter-top, pressing it down as you roll. This will soften the fruit and make it easier to juice.

Next, cut your lime or lemon in half. Grab one half with your tongs, like so:

Now (aiming downward, for the love) squeeze that lime or lemon with all your might (I use two hands because I’m a weakling like that). Continue the rolling, the slicing, and the squeezing until you have all the juice you need.

The tong trick helps prevent juice from getting all over your hand and running down your arm and up your sleeve. Not that this would actually happen, but now it most definitely won’t. Plus you won’t get lime-squeezing-induced carpal tunnel, so I think we can all breathe a sigh of relief there.

I first tried this trick while making BLT Chopped Salad, and I’m pretty sure I’ve made it clear that I have been eating that salad three meals a day for the past eleventy days or so because I love it so much. I’ve learned to just squeeze the lime directly onto the salad because life’s too short to squeeze it into a jar for the purpose of making a dressing. Just squeeze it directly, then pour in the oil, and sprinkle with salt.

Then, because you are amazingly efficient, you can use your lime squeezing tongs to toss the salad altogether (thus mixing the lime juice, olive oil, and salt along with all the other ingredients) and then to serve the salad with those very tongs. If by now tongs are not your favorite kitchen gadget, I believe you need to go back and read this post more thoroughly. Or maybe you just haven’t made this salad yet, for reasons I will never understand.

Grab you some limes (or lemons) and grab you some tongs and commence the squeezing.

Now you tell me. Is that not the most amazing kitchen hack you’ve read in the last three to five minutes? And have you made this salad yet? Do it already.