It's been four weeks since I started the limoncello. The liquid smells very lemony and the smell of the alcohol made my nose wrinkle. The peel should be completely colourless, so it's now time to separate it from the alcohol. Once done, we'll be adding the sugar syrup.
Firstly, find a container large enough to hold the alcohol, as well as the sugar syrup you'll be adding later - it needs to be about a litre or so in size. Moisten a paper coffee filter with water (to stop it from absorbing the lemon oils and alcohol) and place inside a funnel. Pop the funnel in your container and then gradually add your alcohol - allow this to drip through and hopefully you'll have a nice, clean liquid. When you finally get to the peel, squeeze the filter (gently) to get as much of that lemon oil out as you can.
Make your sugar syrup by combining a cup of sugar and a cup of water in a pot. Bring to the boil and simmer for a couple of minutes; remove from the heat and allow to cool. As you add the syrup to the alcohol, give it a stir and sample it - add more or less syrup according to taste. Finally, pour into your bottle, seal and then place in a cool, dark spot to infuse.
It's drinkable after a week or so but clearly the longer you leave it, the better it will taste. Enjoy!
Whoops - for those who didn't already know, chill it before drinking. It's also a sipper, not a quaffer...
9 comments:
Good tip on the coffee filter. Enjoy it after Christmas lunch Nige.
So how does it taste?
Hamburgled(?) - at first, it tasted like lemon-flavoured cough medicine. I tempered it with some spring water and the sugar syrup helped too. I reserved a little of this mix, threw it in the freezer and when I eventually tried it, it was pretty good.
Barb - Yeah, it's a handy tip I found used by one of the people whose recipe I found, so due credit to them.
Hi Nigel,
Thanks for your message. Merry Christmas to you & your loved ones. Do you have to help prepare the feast today?
I have been rather slack with comments and reading of blogs for many weeks now, so I apologise for that. I almost missed your limoncello project. I would also like to try making it with lime. I saw on a blog that someone made mandarin-cello. I can't imagine trying to peel the rind off a mandarin!
Your tips have been useful for the next time I make it, and it will be soon because I have a waiting list of requests. But I can't seem to find the beautiful lemons like I used the last time.
Take care and I look forward to reading more of your culinary experiments in the new year :-)
Nora
Nigel ~ Nothing like making ones own digestifs and aperitifs. I especially adore quarante-quatre, for which one studs an orange (necessarily organic because the entire oranges sits in the alcohol) with 44 coffee beans and then sits it in an ocean of vodka - well, 750ml worth. Add 1/3 cup sugar, shake the jar every day, and the liquid is ready to be funneled into a suitable vessel for storing and from which to pour within one month...ideal!
Have a safe and happy holiday season, Nigel!
Hi Nigel,
Looks wonderful and sounds like it tastes the same! I'll have to find it, but if I recall correctly, my Zia's recipe calls for one heap o sugar, so not surprised you had to add a bit more. Quite unctuous, but not syrupy, out of the freezer. After all the fun, it sits around the 80 proof mark, not bad for a little old lady. Her bergamot concoction is something else again.
All the Best to you and yours this holiday season. Happy 2008!
Cheers!
I've tried making limoncello using Peta Mathias recipe and I surely didn't taste it. I just knew from the people I gave the bottles that they taste great! So, i said to myself, oh, the recipe works! I used vodka as the alcohol base. What did you use? Some people do use gin, does it make any difference? (I don't drink).
Happy Christmas and Great New Year, Nigel!!
If you have any kaffir lime fruit, use the zest from that instead of an ordinary lime - the skin is much more oily and imparts much greater flavour.
great blog- things to do with lemons and puha.
perfect
b
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