limoncello

[jeepster]

this is an old italian familly recipe. limoncello is a liquer popular in southern itally and is usually served ice cold after a large meal....

when i was in california we picked close to 40lbs of lemons to make this, and a case of vodka (there it only costs 60$ for a case)

here is the recipe

1 half gallon vodka or 2 fifths

18-22 lemons per half gallon

4 cups sugar

5 cups water.


zest the lemons, but dont get any of the white peal part, put in a large mason jar or glass container. dump in the vodka and let sit for up to 60 days.

then boil the sugar and water together for about 10 minutes, let cool completley, and then add to the vodka/lemon peals.

let that sit up to another 40 days, then bottle, but keep bottles in the freezer however if you wanted, its safe to bottle as soon as 5 days

but like making beer, keep this stuff out of the light

really good stuff.... about 35-40$ a bottle at the store

im typing this as im finnishing up making a 5 gallon batch

[jeepster]

forgot to add, use only organic lemons, or fresh lemons (but not the everyday ones you get at the store)

[Caseyd]

When my parents lived in Italy they made a couple batches and gave them to friends.

[jackmaster]

damn i bet my wife would dig that stuff, sounds kind of sweet, is it? she really likes those lemon drops but they dont take that long to make, so i bet it is damn fine

[jeepster]

well, the traditional recipe calls for 150+ proof liqour... so the recipe is sweet for a reason, the end product is... well its sweet just to get rid of the bark... but it still has alot of bite.

i used cheap 80 proof vodka (it was 54$ for a case in california), and yeah, it turned out a little syrup-y, but its still alot better than what you can get at the store. we just added about 3/4s a half gallon and we are letting that settle/steep a while longer before bottling. we will see how that turns out