Instructions: CUT A LEMON and geysers of juice spit in all directions ... to hand, to arm, to unguarded eye. This pucker-packed, near-clear liquid is redolent with citrus perfume and filled with sour culinary potential.

Squeeze that lemon, and a gentle squirtlike moan produces more juices, with seeds and pulp swimming in its generous acidic pool.

Lemon juice is friend to fish, fowl and fruit tart alike. But its the beverage made with sweetened juice and water that quenches our hot-weather thirst. Yes, theres no disputing Americas summertime love affair with icy lemonade.

Homemade lemonade is generally much better than store-bought prepared lemonade, made-from-frozen-concentrate lemonades, or, heaven forbid, beverages made from powdered "lemonade" mixes.

Those alternatives can be too sweet for my palate. Lacking lemon loyalty, some of them taste artificial, almost "chemical," colored like a yellow taxi, not the inside of a lemon.

Making lemonade from scratch is no big deal. When I was a kid, making refreshing lemonade meant revenue as well as refreshment. In those sun-soaked California summers, front-yard lemonade sales were brisk. The formula was simple enough: Mix 1 cup fresh lemon juice with 3/4 cup sugar, then stir until sugar is dissolved and add 4 cups water and ice. Kah-ching. Kah-ching.

For a rosy tint, Id add a drop or two of red food coloring or a splash of cranberry juice. As an adult, I add either pomegranate syrup or grenadine.

But as with most things in the culinary world, there are myriad lemonade recipes, techniques and variations. My kid-style beverage was just the tip of the old lemonade ice cube. and yes, you can make lemonade ice cubes. Michelle Urvater, cookbook author likes to make ice cubes from her concentrated lemonade mixture; that way, if and when they melt, they wont dilute her delectable lemonade.

Urvaters lemonade is based on a syrup that starts with lemon zest (colored part of peel), sugar and a little water. The ingredients are boiled for 30 seconds and a generous amount of lemon juice is added. Its stored in the refrigerator and can be mixed on an as-needed basis, 1/4 cup at a time, with either water or mineral water.

Irresistible, but those perfection-driven writers at Cooks Illustrated magazine (July 1998, by author Adam Ried) take a different preparation approach.

Searching for a "full, complex lemon flavor," they borrowed an Amish method, a technique that does away with the juicer.

Lemon slices and sugar are mashed with a potato masher or large wooden spoon until they give up their juices and the sugar dissolves, about four minutes.

Strained, the liquid is combined with cold water.

The flavor is delicious because the fragrant oils from the citrus skin are released into the liquid during the "bruising" and quasi-mashing.

Take your pick. Or augment your lemonade with berries or mint. Theyre all sensational sweet-sour thirst relievers. The recipes, along with some lemon-scented desserts, lemon-lime pound cake and lemonade cookies are presented

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