Lemon Juice substitutes

1:1

Keeps the acid, flavour and liquid roles.

Almost identical acidity, so it curdles milk and activates baking soda just the same. The flavour is more floral and unmistakably lime, which shows in a delicate dessert.

Per 1 tbsp lemon juice: 1 1/2 tsp white wine vinegar + 1 1/2 tsp water + 1/2 tsp finely grated lemon zest

Keeps the acid, flavour and liquid roles.

Rebuilds the acidity and the aroma separately, which gets far closer than vinegar alone. The zest has to be fresh; dried lemon peel will not do it.

1:1

Keeps the acid, flavour and liquid roles.

Reliably acidic and perfectly good for curdling milk or activating soda, but it tastes flat and slightly cooked. Add fresh zest if lemon is meant to be the flavour.

1:1

Keeps the acid, flavour and liquid roles.

Pressed unripe grape juice, tart but gentler and far less aromatic than lemon. Lovely in dressings and pan sauces, too weak to curdle milk.

Use half the amount, then taste

Keeps the acid and liquid roles; loses flavour.

Roughly twice as acidic, so halve it. It supplies the sourness but none of lemon's perfume, so a lemon tart made this way simply fails.

1/4 tsp citric acid dissolved in 1 tbsp water per 1 tbsp lemon juice

Keeps the acid and liquid roles; loses flavour.

Pure sourness with no aroma. Ideal where you need acidity without extra liquid or flavour, useless where lemon is the point of the dish.

For activating soda or stabilising egg whites: 1/2 tsp cream of tartar per 1 tbsp lemon juice

Keeps the acid role; loses flavour and liquid.

A dry acid, so it adds no liquid at all, which is sometimes exactly what a stiff batter or a meringue needs. It contributes nothing in flavour or brightness.

1:1, and cut sugar elsewhere

Keeps the acid, flavour and liquid roles.

Far less acidic and much sweeter, so it will not curdle milk or properly activate baking soda. Use it for flavour and liquid only.