Thursday, April 12, 2007

Limoncello

Over the past few weeks, I've become particularly fond of Limoncello, very much departing from my typical alcoholic fare of vodka, scotch, or beer.

For anyone who has never had the pleasure of sipping a nice glass of Limoncello, it is a sweet, lemon flavored Italian liqour. Seriously, guys, this stuff is awesome. My wife and I were at Buca Di Beppo (and awesome italian chain restaurant) a few months ago, and I ordered the Limoncello, while she ordered an "Italian" Mohito. Turns out she liked the Limoncello more than the Mohito, so she stole it from me.

A couple days later, I went out and grabbed a bottle of Limoncello from the liquor store, as wifey seemed fond of it. I now know that Limoncello is ridiculously tasty, and is a perfect treat after a long evening of electrical wiring. There are three sacred things to me in this world; watching baseball, drinking good scotch, and watching 24. Now, watching 24 with a glass of Limoncello is even BETTER!

So, what did I decide to do, to, you know, help out this newfound addiction to Limoncello? I decided to MAKE it.

I found some recipes on the internet, and it seems to be very easy to make. Essentially, you're infusing 1.5L of Everclear (grain alcohol; 190 proof) with the lemon flavor, using the rind of 15 lemons, and letting that steep for two weeks. After that, you make a simple syrup of 6 cups of sugar and 1.5L of water. Let that cool, strain the Everclear of the rind, and combine the two. Let that sit for about 40 days, and there you have it...LIMONCELLO!

I've got it figured out that once the water is mixed in, the alcohol content will go down to about 95 proof, which is still firewater. Some recipes call for the use of 100 proof vodka, but there is too strong a taste with vodka. Everclear tastes like...nothing, really.

The smell of the lemon/Everclear concoction right now reminds me of a cleaning product. I mean, lemony fresh cleaning products are essentially just alcohols and lemon scent, so besides drinking this, I could degrease the engine of my car!

I'll let you know in a month or so how it came out.