Limoncello Part 2

Here is part two of the making Limoncello. We left off with some lemon rinds steeping in some vodka. Roughly one week along we are ready to finish it off and have a drink! The first step is to strain the zests out of the liquid. Don't throw them away because they make delicious candied lemon zests! I usually pull them out using chopsticks and set them aside. Then I use a funnel with a coffee filter in it to get rid of all the tiny pieces of zest floating around.

Now that you have particle free lemon flavored vodka it is time to add some simple syrup to sweeten it up and bring down the alcohol content a bit. I have seen a few different recipes that call for various ratios of booze to sugar. Some (like Giada's 2 and 1/2 cups of sugar to a single fifth) would be sweet enough to make a five year old sick. In this most recent batch I used 1 and 1/2 cups of 1:1 simple syrup. This is just under half of a fifth (750ml/2 = 375ml = 1.58 cups). This is just on the threshold of too sweet for me. If it isn't icy cold it won't be very pleasing.

After filtering. A fifth sure isn't much liquid out of its fancy bottle...

After you have added your simple syrup let it all mix together and cool down in the fridge before you take that first sweet sip!

After adding simple syrup.

Drink up!

PS: I promise one of the next three blog posts will contain my first original drink that wasn't auwful. (Hint it is named after a fictional drink from the "Life Aquatic".)

Of Cheap Shit

Lets face it most people reading this aren't millionaires. Everybody likes a good deal and we all look for ways to save a few bucks here and there. The old adage You get what you pay for! has held true for most of the purchases in my life. $20 jeans wear out faster than $60 jeans, $400 rims look like shit and are unsafe, and booze that comes in a plastic bottle will taste like rubbing alcohol and will give you a hangover for days. Most recently I learned my lesson when I bought a $5 citrus press instead of the wonderful $20 OXO press. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002BFZ16/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_1?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B000660R2Y&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=0531D215EHEWWQ2QPFF3 No the green one isn't supposed to be in two pieces.

Wouldnt you know the shitty press broke on the third lime, almost taking the tip of my middle finger with it. Cursing in pain at my complete stupidity I began juicing the 40 limes and lemons by hand... Fuck that. I ran out and bought myself a real tool. Lesson learned. If you should take anything from this rant it should be the following points:

• You get what you pay for, Garbage in garbage out, yadda yadda yadda
• OXO makes affordable kitchen tools that I have found to work well
• If you are making a cocktail with citrus in it squeeze your own juice (See bullet point 1)

1st Post & Limoncello

Hey everybody, I have decide to start this blog to keep track of things that I am interested in and as a record of things that I create. Cocktails have recently become a small obsession of mine to expect to see many posts dedicated to recipes and different booze based creations. Well on to the first real post!

Limoncello

For those of you unfamiliar with limoncello here is an excerpt from Wikipedia.

Limoncello (Italian pronunciation: [limonˈtʃɛllo]) is an Italian lemon liqueur mainly produced in Southern Italy, especially in the region around the Gulf of Naples, the Sorrentine Peninsula and the coast of Amalfi and islands of Procida, Ischia and Capri. It is also produced in Sicily, Sardinia, Menton in France, and the Maltese island of Gozo. Though there is debate about the exact origin of the drink, it is at least one hundred years old.

Traditionally, it is made from the zest of Femminello St. Teresa lemons, that are also known as Sorrento lemons.Lemon zest, or peels without the pith, are steeped in grain alcohol until the oil is released. The resulting yellow liquid is then mixed with simple syrup. Clarity and viscosity are affected by factors like the relative temperatures of the two liquids. Most lemons, including the more-common Eureka lemon will produce satisfactory limoncello.

So the first batch I made a few weeks ago was a combination of a few recipes. In a jist it was 1 bottle of Russian Standard vodka, the zest of seven large lemons and roughly 2 cups of 1:1 simple syrup. It was good for a first attempt. Here is a more detailed explanation of this most recent batch.

Limoncello

750ml of Batch 206 Vodka (aka a "fifth". Use any vodka here, or a grain alcohol like everclear. Just remember garbage in garbage out)
9 Large Organic Lemons
375ml 1:1 Simple Syrup (Dissolve one part sugar in one part warm water in a saucepot don't boil the water)

I apologize for the lack of pictures for each step. This blog post was an after thought.

Thoroughly clean each lemon with soap and warm water. You don't want any of the waxes in the skin in your finished product! Pat the lemons dry and set them aside.

I pour the vodka in a larger container with a large mouth, but in theory you could do this right in the vodka bottle(it might get a bit tight in there).

There are many methods that you can use to zest the lemons. You could use a normal zester, or a channel knife http://www.amazon.com/Rosle-12716-Vertical-Canelle/dp/B00008WV3P/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1340324693&sr=8-8&keywords=Channel+knife or my favorite a very sharp paring knife. The added bonus of the latter two methods is you can candy the zest afterward.(Future post!)

Whatever method you use carefully slice only the zest off leaving the bitter white pith behind. Too much pith will leave you with bitter limoncello. Try to get the oils from the zesting process into the vodka. Drop the zest right into the vodka.



As you can see above there are some zested lemons and some zest in the vodka. Notice how clear the vodka is.

Now it is as simple as letting The zests steep in the vodka at room temperature for at least five days. I have seen some recipes calling for up to 40 days so I will experiment with timing more later. I have noticed a big difference between regular and organic lemons. There was much more oil in the zest of the organic lemons and they were extremely fragrant. So I would recommend the extra 30 cents apiece for the good stuff!

This is what it looks like three days in. You can see how much color has leeched into the vodka.



After this I will strain the llimoncello through two layers of coffee filters. Then I will add 375ml of simple syrup. This should result in limoncello that is 30% ABV(Alcohol by Volume). You will end up with 1 1/2 fifths of limoncello!

Chill, serve, and enjoy!

I will post some pictures of the final product next week!