I never cease to be amazed when I come across yet another tactic for juicing a lemon. Don’t get me wrong: this is no disrespect to the many citrus lovers out there. Like peeling a hard-boiled egg, getting it right is a common problem. If you don’t want to store an electric juicer or a clunky appliance to occasionally make your favorite muffin recipe, I can relate. Here’s how to juice a lemon without an expensive juicer.

The most effective juicing techniques involve breaking open the little juice sacs that make up the flesh of the lemon. Find the best and fastest way to do that, and you’ll get all the juice you can get. That’s why electric juicers and those heavy elbow juicers can be handy for people who need orange juice every day: they grind, squeeze, and break open most of those little sacs. If you’re starting with a small lemon, one that’s mostly pith, or one that’s dry and has seen better days, it might not have much to offer.

For people like me, the monthly tea drinker and occasional lemon poppy seed cake baker, you don’t really need a fancy contraption to juice your lemons. That said, it doesn’t hurt to have some sort of tool to help pop those hard-to-reach juice bubbles. Before I juice anything, I roll it on the counter with a fair amount of pressure. Again, the goal is to pop some of the juice bubbles by squashing them against the counter. Some people will microwave their lemon to weaken the structure, others will bake their lemon for the same reason. Those take an extra step, so I just stick to the counter. Then I do one of two things, depending on where I am.

For a relatively small Brooklyn apartment, I manage to cram in a decent amount of cookware and gadgets, but when it comes to citrus, I basically use a caveman’s tool. I use a wooden reamer, which is a lot less intimidating than it sounds. The reamer is a lightweight wooden handle with a ribbed, pointed top. I’ve had one since I was in culinary school, and it’s probably the best $8 you can spend. It’s quick to use and easy to clean.