Limoncello (Photos)

I mentioned we had received a couple of dozen Meyer Lemons



from my brother in Texas. We made Lemon Curd a couple of weeks back, using the juice from some of them. Today we finished the Limoncello we made from the zest.



To make Limoncello you will need

the zest from 20 lemons
a liter of vodka or rum
or
a half liter of grain alcohol diluted to a liter volume with water
3 cups of sugar and 4 cups of water.

The zest is added to a suitable glass container with the alcohol - in my case, grain alcohol (absolute ethanol), diluted 50/50 with water to yield 100 proof ethanol.

This beautiful mixture is set aside for a week or two during which time, the alcohol pulls any soluble oils and other volatiles from the zest. This photo was taken the first day.



Today (about two weeks later) we finished the Cello. with our zest extraction and simple syrup, made from 3 cups of sugar and 4 cups of water.

You can see the liquid in the alcohol extraction container has turned a nice yellow color.



First we will make the simple syrup by heating a mixture of three cups sugar in 4 cups water.



Heat until it reaches a rolling boil.



and turns clear.



Then allow it to cool.

While the syrup is cooling Separate the extract from the zest by straining



The lemon color of the liquid is more evident here.



Place the alcohol extract in a suitable glass container.



and add the cooled simple syrup



This is maybe 50 proof alcohol, sugar and lemon extract. It will store for some time in a glass bottle.

The Italians serve this as cold as possible and we like to keep our Cello in the freezer. The QC guy in me splashed a little over ice tonight to try it out.



Nice Lemon flavor.

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