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Limoncello

8,797 Views | 43 Replies | Last: 3 yr ago by Tumble Weed
Aggie12B
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Have any of y'all tried it? It is a lemon flavored liqueur from the southern part of Italy. My wife and I were first introduced to it while visiting Sardinia. It is a light and perfect beverage to enjoy on a hot Summr day. I love to drink it mixed with cranberry juice after I mow my yard.
(removed:10EA24-2)
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It's insanely good. Please tell me about the trip - going soon -
HTownAg98
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It's also insanely easy to make. As a bonus, you get a fresh pitcher of lemonade.
https://www.gardenbetty.com/homemade-limoncello-aka-sunshine-in-a-bottle/
gigemags87
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Been on my list to make for years. Think I'm gonna try the sous vide method shortly:

https://recipes.anovaculinary.com/recipe/2-hour-sous-vide-limoncello
Aggie12B
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Beachbabe19 said:

It's insanely good. Please tell me about the trip - going soon -
While I was stationed in Germany, my wife and I traveled to Alghero Sardinia twice. Both times we stayed at the Hotel Punta Negro. We really enjoyed our visits. The beaches were nice, the coastline is beautiful, and the food was really good, especially if you like seafood. We found a little cafe in Alghero where we enjoyed paninis and gelatto on the cheap and just people watched while we ate. Sardinia was my wife's favorite place to visit when we were living in Germany. We have a lot of good memories of Sardinia. You should enjoy your trip.
AGFAMTX
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I make a buttery pound cake and when it is out of oven, I turn it out from Bundt pan and place under a cake dome to cool and steam cool to keep moist. I wait about an hour and then pour limoncello on top. I repeat this 2-3 times. I have people ask what I did to make it taste so great. I usually just say "oh you know, little of this, little of that".
Na Zdraví 87
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AG
Wife brought back 2 bottles last month from her trip to Italy. They went to the Amalfi coast.
lb sand
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Wife and I went to Italy a few years ago. When we were in Positano, I struck up a conversation with one of our drivers. He was telling me all about how his family makes their own wine, olive oil, and lemoncello. His recipe is basically what your link says to do.

We have made our own lemoncello several times now. Its nice to be able to add as much or as little sugar as you want. Also, you can add a little less water if you want a higher alcohol content. We have found 4 cups of sugar a little too sweet. We use about 3 - 3.5 c of sugar. We have used 1 750ml bottle of everclear with the zest of a bag of organic lemons from costco. The microplane zester is the key, dont get greedy when zesting. The bitterness from the pith will really come thru after steeping in the 95% alcohol.

Also, you can just use the everclear bottle as your measuring cup when diluting. Use 2, 750ml bottles of water to the 750ml of 190p everclear you get a solution right at 31% (62 proof) alcohol. You will probably need 4, 750ml bottles to contain your finished product.

Not only is it delicious to drink, it makes a great gift. Our favorite way to drink is pour about 2oz into wine glass and top it with prosecco (lemoncello spritz)
SACR
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AG

It is a common digestivo, I keep a bottle of it in the freezer at all times.
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aggiefan09
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AG
Have some on the freezer right now. I don't know the exact recipe but I use lemoncello, citrus vodka, and triple Sec with some simple syrup and lemon juice. Makes a tasty lemonade style cocktail.
HHAG
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AG
We have a big lemon tree in the back yard that produces a couple of hundred pounds of lemons every fall. We get a cheap vodka, infuse it with thinly peeled lemon rind for a couple of weeks in the fridge and then make a light simple syrup to mix with the infused vodka. Store in the freezer and bring some out on a hot summer day. Nice to have an Italian wife (sometimes).
BusterAg
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AG
After about 10 batches of this, my tips:

1) if you are going to do this, invest in a microplane zester. Worth the price for the amount of time / quality.
2) Infuse in everclear, not vodka. Seems to get more lemon flavor out of the peels. Of course, you need to dilute to about 30 proof after you finish infusing.
3) The most important step is the zesting. You want zero percent pith. Zero. Very important. Much better to throw away a lot of questionable zest than to have even one micro bit of zest in your lemon peel. The pith is insanely bitter.
4) I prefer to make this with Meyer lemons, but either are good. I just feel like Meyer adds a bit more complexity.
5) Wash your lemons in very hot water and lightly scrub before you zest. Most lemons are coated with just a bit of wax to keep them looking good. If you buy organic, you might be able to skip this step.

Overall, this is a really easy process. It takes me and my wife 3 or 4 hours to carefully zest a 10 lb crate of lemons, which we use all of the best zest for one handle of everclear. We then give the lemons to the daughters, who squeeze them, freeze the juice, and make lemonade whenever they want.
Tumble Weed
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Just started my first batch so we will see how it goes.

8 lemons
750 of Enchanted Rock
A few leaves of mint for 1 day

Letting it set for 2 weeks. Have not decided on how much water and sugar yet. I am thinking 1 cup of sugar and a 750 of water. I don't like it overly sweet.

Going to drop a little lavender in it sometime during the soak.
HTownAg98
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Be careful with lavender. It can overtake it in a hurry. Maybe do a small batch with lavender in case it doesn't turn out right.
MooreTrucker
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AG
Limoncello? Is he related to those kids Orangejello and Lemonjello?
Tumble Weed
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HTownAg98 said:

Be careful with lavender. It can overtake it in a hurry. Maybe do a small batch with lavender in case it doesn't turn out right.
First batch came out perfectly. I sampled as I went along and arrived at a product that I was happy with. You scared me off the lavender and I didn't want to ruin it. Pulled the mint after a couple of days.

But then I couldn't leave well enough alone. I started worrying about my alcohol percentage and if my mixture was stout enough to keep. Read more recipes online and decided to add some Everclear.

It made it harsh instead of smooth. I added water to dilute, but the damage was done.

I will start round 2 soon, and stick closer to my original recipe. Sometimes I am my own worst enemy.


BusterAg
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AG
One thing I recommend is purchasing a cheap hydrometer from Amazon or local homebrew shop. Use gravity measurement to calculate alcohol percentages, then add your sugar. Should give you a piece of mind that your abv is correct, not too harsh, not too weak.
HTownAg98
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Make it like you did, and keep it in the freezer. It will be fine. The recipe I use, assuming you use 151 proof vodka, and count the sugar as water, results in a 60 proof spirit. Most commercial limoncello is around 55-65 proof. That is high enough to be shelf stable, but I still keep it in the freezer. Your recipe, assuming Enchanted Rock is 80 proof and treating the sugar the same, results in a spirit that is roughly 34 proof. The booze level is high enough to be fine if you keep it in the freezer.
HTownAg98
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If you treat the sugar as a liquid, the math is pretty easy, and you don't need a hygrometer.
TheEyeGuy
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I made it last week and then it all disappeared so I made another batch today. Did go off the reservation a bit though. First batch was half lemons with everclear and the other half was limes with tequila. The lemons/everclear came out ok, but the lime/tequila was amazing. So, I doubled down and did a major batch with tequila today. Also added some orange zest to get a margarita limoncello. It is awesome.
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gigemags87
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Pls post the recipe/proportions you used. Gonna try the tequila version for sure.
TheEyeGuy
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gigemags87 said:

Pls post the recipe/proportions you used. Gonna try the tequila version for sure.
I did the sous vide method.... And honestly, my way was a little funky but subbed lime and orange for lemon, subbed monkfruit for sugar (wife is a health nut so we don't have real sugar but it didn't matter) and honestly... I just kind of... eyeballed it? It's not baking so having the proportions perfect isn't necessary, I don't think but damn.... I destroyed the lime one last week.
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Tumble Weed
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Started round #2 on Sunday. Used the microplane and it is resting in Enchanted Rock. I am thinking that I will let it extract for 2 weeks. Going to aim for 20% ABV. I want it to be stable so that I can give it as a gift. Once I have my recipe down, I plan on making a much larger batch.
GeorgiAg
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AG
Restaurant in a town I used to work in made homemade lemoncello, watermelloncello, orangecello, etc...

All very good.
RCR06
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Couple more questions for this tequila concoction.

Blanco or reposado tequila?

80% lime zest 20% orange zest?
TheEyeGuy
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More like 90-10.

I used a mid level repasado. Figured that this was so much alcohol that you didn't want to use to gut but didn't need something like patron either. I used cazadores
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TheEyeGuy
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Tumble Weed said:

Started round #2 on Sunday. Used the microplane and it is resting in Enchanted Rock. I am thinking that I will let it extract for 2 weeks. Going to aim for 20% ABV. I want it to be stable so that I can give it as a gift. Once I have my recipe down, I plan on making a much larger batch.

get a sous vide. I have batches done in for
Hours
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RCR06
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AG
Got a batch of limoncello and eyeguys limecello going in the sous vide. Let y'all know how it turns out.
Tumble Weed
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Bottled and gave away round #2. Bottled round #3. Soaking round #4. I think that I have my recipe for limoncello down. The Aggie Honey and Enchanted Rock makes for a good combo.

Last night I also started a Cognac and Orange combination. Should be interesting!
Txmoe
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AG
Just wanted to share my experience in following this thread's advice in making limoncello. I used the sous vide recipe recommended above and it worked great. Combined with the electric vegetable peeler I bought, I finished the whole project start-to-finish while I watched LSU beat 'Bama.

Thoughts on finished product:
  • The limoncello is very smooth; in fact, maybe a little too smooth. I don't want it to kick me in the nards but I do want it to muss up my hair a little. Next time, I think I'll try a combo of vodka and grain alcohol and see what happens.
  • I also tried Eyeguy's 'recipe' of using tequila with limes oranges and it turned out great. Much more interesting and complex flavors on the finished product.
62strat
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BusterAg said:

One thing I recommend is purchasing a cheap hydrometer from Amazon or local homebrew shop. Use gravity measurement to calculate alcohol percentages, then add your sugar. Should give you a piece of mind that your abv is correct, not too harsh, not too weak.
I'm failing to see how a hydrometer would do anything in this situation. You're simply adding water to alcohol, so it's basic math. (20oz of 150 proof mixed with 20oz water results in 40oz of 75 proof)

A hydrometer tells you how much sugar is in a solution, so you can measure before and after fermenting something in order to calculate abv. There is no fermentation involved in making this lemoncello, only infusing.
Tumble Weed
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Tumble Weed said:

Bottled and gave away round #2. Bottled round #3. Soaking round #4. I think that I have my recipe for limoncello down. The Aggie Honey and Enchanted Rock makes for a good combo.

Last night I also started a Cognac and Orange combination. Should be interesting!

Still soaking round #4 of the limoncello.

Finished the Cognac and Orange. It is pretty tasty. My friend wants to make a sidecar with it, so I will probably give it a try.

Everyone has been pleased with my Italian Spritzers. It is a shot of limoncello in a glass of Prosecco.
Limoncello
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I like it!
Scan Man
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Got a big bag of lemons from my father in laws te this weekend, and this thread was the first thing that occurred to me.

Going to try the sous vide method, any advice on grain alcohol vs. vodka? Or am I best to follow the recipe as is for the first time?

Thanks!
HTownAg98
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