Homemade Limoncello

We have a glut of lemons – some Meyer but most big ugly looking ones.  So when my better half suggested making limoncello I was keen.  In the pic there is a glass of store bought Italian limoncello and one of ours.  Can you tell which is which?

Ingredients:

Peel of 15 lemons

750ml vodka

2 cups sugar

2 cups water

Method:

Making Limoncello turns out to be quite straight forward but involves being patient.

First you peel your lemons – trying not to get much pith along with the yellow.  We were possibly a little impatient here.  Next time I might try using a microplane. (Which would mean an extra straining step would be necessary)

Put your lemon peel (or zest) into a container with the vodka.  Put it in a cool dark place with a lid on – or sealed with cling film. 

And then you wait – in our case 2 weeks and 4 days.

Strain the vodka and set aside.

Make a simple syrup with the sugar and water – ie heat until the sugar dissolves.  Let the simple syrup cool.   Add to the vodka.  I did it bit by bit but ended up using it all.  If you have a sweet tooth you might want to add 50% more sugar.

For the record, the cloudy one is store bought and the clear one is ours.  My better half did some research and came up with a suggestion that using good quality vodka results in clarity.

Our vodka was 2/3^rd's new and 1/3^rd an old bottle – at least 40 years old.  So the jury's out.