like youth and Summer and being in love for the first time.
That is all.
Can I have some?
Failing that, can I have your recipe?
6 lemons, well washed under hot water.
500mL simple syrup
1300 ml decent quality vodka (80 proof)
Honey
You will need a glass gallon jar with lid or similar ceramic container. No metal. No plastic.
Carefully zest all six lemons with the fine side of a kitchen grater. You want to be really careful here to get only the yellow zest and, ideally, none of the white pith. The better you do here, the better you final product will be. You can juice the lemons and use the juice in other projects after zesting.
Put the lemon zest in your glass jar and pour the vodka over it. Put the lid on and put it somewhere out of direct sunlight and reasonably cool. Let it sit for 3 days, shaking it a bit each day. Don’t let it go more than 4 days. After that, bitter flavors really start to leech out of the lemon zest.
Strain the limoncello through a fine sieve like a tea strainer. If you want absolutely no sediment, strain it again through cheese cloth or a coffee filter. Add the simple syrup and stir well.
I can’t give you an exact amount on the honey. It will vary by how strongly flavored the honey is. I used some raw honey I bought from a beekeeper. Two tablespoons was enough. What you are aiming for is just a whisper of honey flavor in the final product, not the taste of honey-lemon cough drops.
Bottle the mixture, seal it, and put it back in the cool, dark place to mellow for a week or two. Chill it well before serving. I keep mine in the freezer.
You can make an absolutely divine orangecello by substituting blood oranges and leaving out the honey.
Thanks!
oooo. Will have to try this out.
My friend Gilbert made limoncello, but decided to use Everclear (190 Proof) instead of vodka.
He brought a bottle to a music event, but left it in his car. I joined him for a shot, but it was too much. I went back into the music venue while he remained in the car. We found him later passed out in the car, having finished what he’d brought in a pint bottle.
Higher proof alcohol will extract the lemon zest more quickly, but not more thoroughly. I’ve been playing around with making limon/orange/lime cellos for a couple years now. If you use everclear, you end up having to dilute the product considerably to get something you can stand to drink. It ends up having less of a lemon flavor than starting with the same number of lemons, using 80 proof vodka, and having a bit of patience.
FTR, lime zest is very strongly flavored. If you make some from limes, use half the number as you would lemons. My first batch was overwhelmingly limey and was good only for mixing with sparkling water and ice.
I used 90 proof vodka for mine and it was way too much. It’s been in the back of the fridge for a coupe of years now and has mellowed out some but still needs to be diluted.
Also, the instructions I had were to peel the lemons and carefully scrape all the pith out of the insides, which worked okay, but is time consuming.
I’ve made batches that I flavored with mint and other herbs during the steeping phase. I made a batch infused with cannabis for a relative who was dying from cancer. A batch made from good, ripe lemons and flavored with just a touch of honey beats them all, though. When you get the dilution with syrup right, it thickens, but doesn’t crystalize, in the freezer. It should be sweet, but not cloying. It goes down smoothly and tastes like autonomy.
That’s really funny. I got a coupon for a bunch of citrus and was thinking I should make some not 10 minutes ago. I’ve done it with oranges too (FYI: arancello) and it didn’t turn out as well. I also made crema di limoncello (first link on Google, but probably not the one I used) which might be good if you end up making a bitter batch.