Lemoncello

[bryan]

http://blog.sousvidesupreme.com/2011/10/easy-limoncello/
Easy!

Lemoncello

Makes 2 quarts.

10 fresh lemons for zest
1-1/2 cups castor superfine sugar
1 quart water
1 quart vodka

Fill and preheat the SousVide Supreme to 135F/57C.
With a vegetable peeler or sharp paring knife:
Remove the zest from the lemons.
(Save the lemons themselves for another use.)
Take the time to scrape away any bits of bitter white pith.
(from the underside of the pieces of zest)
Put the lemon zest into a gallon zip-closure cooking pouch.
Add the vodka.
Cook for 2 hours:

Meanwhile, in a saucepan over medium heat:
Completely dissolve the sugar in the water and set aside to cool.
When the cooking time has elapsed, strain the vodka into a bowl or pitcher.
Stir in the simple syrup and pour the finished limoncello into clean bottles with tightly fitting stoppers.
Chill well and enjoy!

Edited August 18, 2016 by bryan

[MacKenzie]

I be that would be tasty.  

[Syzygies]

I first had limoncello two decades ago, walking back from a snorkling cove on Panarea. Buried in a tiny shop's chest freezer was an unmarked bottle. A shot really hit the spot on a hot afternoon.

The next summer I was renting a house in California with a large Meyer lemon tree. I made extract for limoncello from about 60 lemons. Harried, trying to pack out of there, something possessed me to try putting the spent zest through the garbage disposal. Expensive mistake.

The summer after that, I brought large bottles of limoncello to a Fire Island beach house. 3 AM rooftop parties definitely confirmed the "dancing on the roof of a taxi" reputation limoncello has in New York. We ran out in the wee hours one Saturday, and I was pressed to produce another bottle. I tried slipping in my experimental Key Lime batch without warning. Picture half a dozen partiers spitting out in shock, at once.

A decade ago in Ravello on honeymoon, we asked if the limoncello was homemade. "Sempre a casa!". There was also a small factory in town, very different style.

I haven't tried sous vide for this, though it's a great idea. I lean toward cold extraction, but my insight from these experiments were

[1] The fruit matters. Everything else is secondary. Limoncello is a crime of opportunity; one can't make the best limoncello from the lemons available on demand, this has to be a reaction to unbelievable lemons.

[2] Use twice as much rind as the standard multiple week steeping recipes (found in many books and online) but steep for only a few days.

[3] While I call for Everclear for its extraction power, my friends from the beach understand alcohol better than I ever will. The voices of experience say that Absolut is the least expensive vodka worth drinking. Not for flavor, but for the all important "digestibility", however one wants to put this.

My recipe:

750 ml Everclear (151 proof grain alcohol)
24 unwaxed organic Eureka lemons
500 ml water
2 cups cane sugar

Wash lemons. Peel just the yellow part of the zests,
into a 2 quart ball jar. Add Everclear. Let rest for 3
to 4 days, to make lemon extract. Boil water with sugar
to make simple syrup, let cool. Strain lemon extract
into simple syrup, bottle, and store for serving in
one's freezer. Makes 1.5 liters.

[tinyfish]

Sounds delicious and simple to make.

[ckreef]

Sounds like something I need to try.

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