Everyone has got one lurking in their kitchen cupboard, yet to judge by television cooking show presenters, you'd think that it hasn't been invented yet.

I'm talking about the humble citrus juicer.

Have you ever noticed that all telly chefs, with the exception of one, never use a citrus juicer? They all indulge in a variety of different ways to squeeze the goodness out of a lemon or whatever, but never use the one simple tool designed specifically for the job. It all started a few years ago when one presenter simply grabbed a cut lemon and squeezed it straight into the other ingredients, pausing only to remove a few pips. From this humble start, all manner of strategies are now employed to squeeze a lemon without a juicer, it's almost as if all the television presenters are playing a game with each other to see who can come up with the next variation on the theme.

Here's a few that I've noticed.

1: The straight out display of strength. Pick up the lemon and squeeze for all you're worth, straight in to the ingredients. This is most often a male presenters preferred option, also has the most variations.
2: The ridged pestle, for diving straight into the fruit that is being held above the ingredients; a few twists and the juice is released. This is the female presenters preferred option. Has the disadvantage, along with the display of strength, of leaving pips behind.
3: Squeezing a cut lemon with one hand so that the juice trickles through the fingers of the other hand, thus filtering out those pesky pips.
4: Squeezing a cut lemon upside down, preventing the pips from going where they want. The thinking chefs method.
5: Wrapping the lemon in muslin to keep the pips in, then giving a good squeeze.
6: Using a tea strainer to filter the juice from the display of strength.

I bet there are a few more tricks I haven't seen, but there is the mandatory rolling and pushing of the lemon to extract more juice and others like a quick zap in the microwave for the same effect.

Now all television cooks listen up. A lemon has a certain amount of juice to give, no more, no amount of rolling will increase that, ditto microwave. If you use the tool designed for the job, you will get all the juice that a lemon has to give. With no pips.

Promise.