Limoncello Once Removed
- Total Time
- 5 minutes
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- 1¾liters of Everclear, or other strong or overproof spirit
- 18lemons, whole, well washed, preferably organic
- superfine or white sugar
- food-grade cheesecloth, rinsed and wrung out
- strong butcher’s twine
- large sealable glass vessel or urn, with lid.
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Preparation
- Step 1
Pour the spirit into the well-cleaned urn. Drape the cheesecloth in crossing swaths, making sure to gauge the length so that once the weight of the lemons is pending, they cannot reach the spirit. Bind the cheesecloth tightly in place on the outside edge of the urn with the butcher’s twine, wrapping it under a lip to make certain it is well held. Place the lemons into their hammock and cap the whole with the lid. If the lid has a plastic or rubber gasket, you may wish to remove it, lest it leach any off-flavors into the mix. Store in a stable environment out of sunlight for nine weeks. Given variables like temperature and humidity, your limoncello may be ready before then. Warmer climates will speed up the process. Avoid opening the jar, as it will set the curing process back, but do pay attention to the color of the mix; you want it rich with a kind of varnished yellow, but it can actually go too far, overextracting into a brown color with an intensity that can be too much for some people’s taste.
- Step 2
At the end of the aging period you should have roughly 1 4/10 liters of unsweetened lemon spirit at roughly 60 percent alcohol by volume, or 120 proof. Make a simple syrup of ½ liter water and the same of sugar. When dissolved fully, add to the lemon spirit and mix well. Taste for strength, balance and sweetness and adjust water for dilution and/or sugar if necessary. Be cautious not to drown the lemon’s bite and aromatics with too much sugar, but also bear in mind that if you’re serving your limoncello from the freezer, you will perceive slightly less sweetness in the frozen mixture.
- For more precisely diluting down to taste, you can purchase a spirit hydrometer, a device like a small floating thermometer or fishing bobber, which tells you the proof or percentage of alcohol in a solution, for as little as $7 to $10 at most brewing or winemaking supply stores. You would be looking to keep the final limoncello at about 40 percent, or 80 proof.
Private Notes
Comments
How in the heck does one suspend 18 lemons inside a glass jar? Must be a pretty big glass jar, no? I note that the photo illustration shows only one lemon. Without an explanation, I had to look elsewhere for my lemoncello recipe.
Giuliano Bugialli's original recipe started with 2 C grain alcohol and 2 lemons - far easier to find a vessel to fit. Start small. I've made it many times; it yields a very smooth limoncello. The "fumes" from the alcohol dissolve the essence of the lemon. It's very forgiving: the first batch I made sat for nearly five months, and was delightful. Experiment with small glass bottles, adjusting the sweetness and potency to your own taste. Keep notes of what you prefer.
Do you have any recommendations for an appropriate "large sealable glass vessel or urn, with lid?" The photo has the one vessel with the single lemon so I'm deliberating batches in smaller containers but I think I'd prefer a large single urn.
Never use superfine sugar to make limoncello. Nasty!
This was a big fail for me. I was able to procure a bunch of giant jars and put maybe two to three in each one. The way I read the recipe it calls for 18 in one jar. You would need to get one of those jars that they use at the Army Hospital museum in Washington that they display amputated legs in. My limoncello came out after a few months tasting just like sugared grain alcohol. I think it would have been better if it had a leg in it.
With a sharp vegetable peeler, shave off the zest of 10 lemons (a good base amount and more will certainly deepen the flavor depending on how long you steep everything). Put the peels in a Mason jar able to handle the 1.75 liters of Everclear you will add to the peels in the jar. Close it up and let it steep. For how long... 30 days is good. More zest yields decently lemony alcohol faster, everything else is up to your taste and patience. When ready to your taste, mix with simple syrup (1:1)
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