July 4 Summer Drink (better than scrambled eggs)

I have had homemade Limoncello many times, enough that I too have a recipe to make it.

My recipe calls for 24 lemons, large organic ones if you can get them, but find the largest that have a good lemon smell to them and no blemishes on the skin since the skin is all you use.

Wash the lemons and cut the skin off them being careful not to get any of the white pith beneath the yellow. If you get much of the white pith the liquor will be bitter and not that good.

Use a big crock or other container with a tight lid, you may need two. Wash and dry the container and place the lemon rind inside. Cover all with Everclear151 proof alcohol, do they still make the 180 proof Everlcear? You can use 100 proof vodka (50%) but it won't have quite the kick. Stop filling container when you get 2-3 inches from the top and seal the lid. Place in a cool dark place like the cupboard not the top of the fridge which is hot for 6-8 weeks. Some like to speed things up and finish after 3-4 weeks but longer is better. Might as well get 2 liters of Everclear and make a lot. This stuff is good.

Mix 4 1/2 cups sugar with 6 cups filtered water in a heavy sauce pan. Stir over medium heat till all the sugar is dissolved making a simple syrup. Let the syrup cool to room temp then bring out that crock of lemon and alcohol. Now you will probably need at least two containers since you need to mix all the syrup with the lemon and alcohol. I use a 3 gallon crock for this but I have seen some gallon size sun tea makers that would be ideal. Put the container back in the cool dark cupboard for another month. I know you want it now but good things come to those who wait.

Sterilize as many bottles as you think you will need. Use bottles you can close with a stopper, cork or something. Strain the Limoncello through some cheese cloth or coffee filters to remove all the lemon peel. The liquid should be a bright yellow in color, have a distinct lemon flavor without the bitterness of the juice.

Like SCrammerjammer said it is great straight from the freezer it will not freeze because of the alcohol. Drink it straight our use it to flavor ice tea, over sponge cake, in mixed drinks or to flavor sparkling water. Also good with champagne.

You can do this same thing with orange peel, ginger root and if you use coffee and vanilla beans you have homemade Kahlua.

All those lemons you cut the skin off? Make lemon pies or lemon juice.

Hey the scrambled eggs recipe wasn't bad.

Yes Everclear does still make the 90% (180 proof) alcohol I just bought a bottle and have lemons ready to start zesting tomorrow after breakfast. I will be starting a new batch of Limoncello which should be drinkable by kickoff with Clemson.

SCrammerjammer said:

Update: The wife just said the friend used 95 Proof. It's getting dangerous. g

BT: I saw your rendition using the zest, not the thin lemon slice, with oranges and some of the other things you posted at the end for sort of a fruit cocktail version on Italia.ca. And, thanks for the other suggestions. It seems natural, but I was hooked on the shooters. When I get home, I'm spiking the iced-tea.

Yours will be ready for Clempson. You going to the game? I can bring some creamy Eye-talian parmesan and aged balsamic for snacking.

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We have a wedding to attend in California that weekend but at least I will be free to watch the game.

Just so we all understand the difference between "proof" and "percent".

95% is 95% alcohol.
95 Proof is only 47 1/2% alcohol.
Lots of difference there. Now when you add the sugar water you further dilute the alcohol percentage. Limoncello you want to be at about 30 proof so using the same volume of bottled liquor if you use Everclear you can make over twice as much limoncello as you can with a bottle of 80 or 100 proof vodka.

Smirnoff and Stolichnaya both make 100 proof vodka but both sell for over $25 per liter. Everclear sells for about $14 a bottle so do the math. Unless you have lemon trees growing in you yard (which I do) you save enough using Everclear to pay for the lemons and sugar.

I have made countless bottles of homemade Kahlua using the cheapest brands of vodka and have tried using much better (Absolute and Rain) with no noticeable difference in taste. I may start using Everclear for all my homemade liquor stock.

Everclear is illegal in NY, unless you get it on the Army base.

another reason not to live in New York.

I am eleven days into the process and have taken a look at the progress. The liquid has definitely taken on a beautiful yellow color from all the lemon zest. It is still sealed and sitting in a cool dark corner of the pantry. Another four or five weeks and I will add the sugar water after straining the alcohol from the zest into clean sterilized bottles. I am using a couple of clear glass bottles alcohol came in after I soaked them in soapy water to remove the labels. I like to make my own label for the bottle to give it that extra home made touch. Next week, making Kahlua. Both will be ready for kickoff against Clemson.

My Everclear and Lemon Zest has been fermenting for 30 days now and I am ready to bottle. I finished making my simple syrup, 3 cups water and 2 1/2 cups sugar. The syrup has been divided between two bottles to the halfway mark. The bottles were then filled to within a couple of inches of the top with alcohol, given a couple of shakes after capping and placed back in the cupboard.

I used cone shaped coffee filters to filter the Everclear into the bottles. the liquid is very yellow leaving behind a rather tan colored paste from the lemon zest. I have put a small stick of lemongrass into each bottle.

SCrammerjammer said:

Thanks for the updates, Bayou. I have enjoyed having mine this summer. Shared a couple of shots with friends visiting us in SC from AL this weekend. It's unusual, refreshing, but be careful--it loosens the tongue!

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Next trip to town I may pick up oranges to make a batch of orangecello.

Latest update on the Lemoncello. 8/9/08.

With about three weeks left for the bottles to mature I sampled one today. This stuff will remove paint it is so strong.

Not wanting mine to be so strong I sterilized two more bottles and made another 3 cups sugar water. I divided one of the bottles of Limoncello into the two new bottles and topped them off with more sugar water to lower the proof. I hope this gets me down to around 45 proof which is good for a shooter. I still plan to open a bottle for the Tulame game.

I still have 1 and 1/3 bottles of homemade Kahlua, very smooth and mellow. I will use these bottles and allow the new Kahlua to age even more. Homemade Kahlua seems to take on a real personality after about a year.

Hey Bayou,

How is your limoncello coming along, it's been awhile since your last update...

I decided, since it comes so highly recommended, to attempt my own for the season. I mixed the liquor and lemon together and put it in the cabinet on the 9th of August. I added the sugar water on the 31st. On Labor Day, I decided to try a teeny bit, and it was REALLY sweet, like I had added to much sugar, and there wasn't enough lemon flavor for me. Here are the amounts of my ingredients I used:

About 20 lemons, zested
1 liter of Everclear
5 cups water mixed with 3 1/2 cups of sugar

Did I use too much sugar? Should I add more lemons?:conf2:

bama~grl~in~ms said:

Hey Bayou,

How is your limoncello coming along, it's been awhile since your last update...

I decided, since it comes so highly recommended, to attempt my own for the season. I mixed the liquor and lemon together and put it in the cabinet on the 9th of August. I added the sugar water on the 31st. On Labor Day, I decided to try a teeny bit, and it was REALLY sweet, like I had added to much sugar, and there wasn't enough lemon flavor for me. Here are the amounts of my ingredients I used:

About 20 lemons, zested
1 liter of Everclear
5 cups water mixed with 3 1/2 cups of sugar

Did I use too much sugar? Should I add more lemons?:conf2:

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You can fix anything with duck tape and WD 40 except this but this is fixable. I checked with my moonshine chef and this is what he thinks.
1. did you use all the sugar water? If so you used too much. 3 cups should have been enough for two bottles 5 cups would almost make 3 quarts instead of 2 fifths.

You can divide what you have between a third bottle and add more everclear or vodka. Try dropping 3-4 lemon drop candies in each bottle along with a long thin spiral of lemon rind. This is almost like starting over but one bottle ought to be tolerable to sample. I'm opening a bottle of mine that was redivided into four bottles not long ago. I added a sprig of lemongrass to each of my bottles, don't know if that was a good idea but it sounded good when I thought of it.

I haven't actually strained it yet, so I think I'll add some more lemons and lemon juice and let it sit for about a week and see what that does. I'm afraid of adding more everclear, because even with all that sugar water, it still has an overwhelming kick to it. I just want it to be more lemony, not quite as sugary as it is. Because at this point it tastes like Koolaid, and I would rather it taste like homeade lemonade. Thanks for your help!

bama~grl~in~ms said:

I haven't actually strained it yet, so I think I'll add some more lemons and lemon juice and let it sit for about a week and see what that does. I'm afraid of adding more everclear, because even with all that sugar water, it still has an overwhelming kick to it. I just want it to be more lemony, not quite as sugary as it is. Because at this point it tastes like Koolaid, and I would rather it taste like homeade lemonade. Thanks for your help!

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I used the high octane Everclear myself and found it pretty rough on the tongue. It would make a great varnish remover or oil lamp fuel. I wanted mine more tame to use in shooters so I thinned it down to around 40 proof and it tastes quite lemony.

I see no harm in adding more lemon but not sure about the juice. The lemon oils from the skin is where you want the flavor to come from. After straining the source to put in bottles squeeze the zest to get as much as possible out of them. I strained using a funnel with a coffee filter placed inside it. It took forever but the liquor is very clear and a beautiful yellow.

Revisiting this thread I wanted to make the following correction. My recipe does not make 2 bottles of Limoncello but 4 bottles. I was right that you must use the 180 proof alcohol to get the best extraction, 80 proof vodka just will not produce the same results. You really need to get this down to about 40 proof to use safely. Shooting Limoncello at 180 or even 90 proof can cause you to lose an eye or render you speechless for a day or two.