Limoncello Recipe Discussion

[Brigand]

I gave Arancello a go (Limoncello with Oranges instead)

Have been sampling and I think I'll need to tweak the recipe

I went for 80% of the sugar and used 4 large naval oranges with 500ml of neutral

I'll report back with further attempts

Cheers

[MacStill]

I just bottled mine tonight, looks and smells great.

It's in the fridge getting chilled and I'll have a crack at it shortly, mrs Mac is eager to try it too :mrgreen:

P5241483.jpg

[SBB]

Been away for a couple of weeks to attend a 70th Birthday Party. Some of the guests were born in Italy and many were of Italian decent. I thought it a good place to test run my first batch of Lemocello. In short they loved the stuff......comments ranged from "bloody good" to "better than the bottle I bought from the bottle shop" The only down side is they guzzled the lot :cry: ......cant wait to get another batch going for my own consumption :lol:
SBB

[Brigand]

I gave Arancello a go (Limoncello with Oranges instead)

I had a little of this again last night and the orange presence seems more rounded and much tastier

Perhaps aging is the ticket with this one

Will see how it goes in a couple more weeks

Cheers

[Geoff]

I have some steeping with 15 Lisbon lemons, and it smells great after 3 days. I just wonder if when I dilute from current 85% to 40% if the flavour is plentiful? Only those that have made this recipe will know.

[SBB]

You should still have all the flavor you want after dilution using this recipe Jeff

[Airhill]

Copied this across from AD :) BTW have cut the limes to one as they seem to take over.

Although limoncello recopies are well documented this is how I make mine:-

7 medium or 5-6 large lemons
2 limes
1 mandarin orange

Zest the fruit and put in a jar, cover with full strength neutral to about 3/4 an inch over.
Take the zested fruit with the exception of the mandarin (eat that) and slice in half and juice (hand juicer). Strain the juice through a quarter folded handkerchief (preferably clean) twice. It will still be opaque at this stage. In a pan add the juice and the same quantity if white sugar and heat gently stirring until it becomes clear with a very light colouring. Cool and place in a jar.

When the zest is done, it is when you take a piece out and it has gone hard, about 3-4 days, strain and add slowly to the syrup.

I have not put quantities of liquid in this as it varies with jar shape juicyness of the fruit etc. I aim for about 50-50 neutral and syrup.

This is fairly kick ass so if you wish it for the ladies increase the syrup or dilute the neutral after maceration.

This is what the first lot looked like

[R-sole]

What do you reckon the mandarin gives it, Airhill?

We got about 200 lemonades left on the tree and about 500 little mandarines as well as a good supply of oranges. For some reason the citrus was plentiful but tiny this year. We had our wettest spring for a decade or more and some fair rains over the summer, although the last couple of months have been fairly dry.

Will have to give it a whirl, bought the corn scraper the other day too.

[Airhill]

Just had one left in the fruit bowl which I was going to eat so thought why waste it :) The first lot was overpoweringly limey (and they were just small ones). Last lot was still limey but could taste the lemon and just a hint of mandarin on the aftertaste.
Got some more freebie lemons so I might cut the limes and up the mandarins to 2 should give it a prettier colour.
Not a drink to play shotties with, besides getting you pissed quickly it also made my fillings tingle :lol:

[R-sole]

Just that like i said i have heaps of all of it, would you say the mandarine would make a goodun by itself?



I'mAJaffaFanaticPunkin

[Airhill]

Just a personal opinion but I think it needs some lemon to stop it being too sweet.Still trying to drink my way through my miniatures but I find the mandarin ones a bit sickly.

[SBB]

Just wondering how many people have been making this and what the lemoncello they made turned out like. Im on my 3 batch now and all have tasted different. The first one I made is the best at this point. It could be best because it has had a few months to age, but I suspect that the type of lemon used plays a large part in the quality and taste of the end product. Ive read that Eureka is one of the preferred types to use. So they are next on my list.
SBB

[R-sole]

Damn forgot about this.

I'll be trying it with lemonades and Mandarines this week.

[MacStill]

Mines good, a bit sweet but nice........ not much left :)

[Brigand]

Mine have been fairly consistent - I have only used lemons from my father in law's tree

I've probably done 3 or 4 batches

I have used slightly less sugar in some batches - so they are less syrupy - but still the same flavour wise

Cheers

[SBB]

Had another taste of the Lemoncello that I bottled on the 30-6-11 last night. It tastes much much better than it did even a week ago. A much cleaner smoother taste. A bit of ageing defiantly helps this stuff.
SBB

[R-sole]

I put one of these to macerate on the w'end. I'd printed the first post out a while ago, so peeled all 14 lemonades with SBB's great idea of the corn scraper thing.

Then looked at the recipe and realised it was gunna come out at under 20%.

When back in and read the whole first page to discover you need hi-test.

I just don't keep it round unless i need it and the last run i'd done was already cut to 40% :oops: :roll:


So i remembered a jug of bacardi at 96% from my first neutral run at the back of the highest shelf and dug it out.

We'll see in a week i supposse. :?

[R-sole]

Well the week turned into a month while i dicked around with the idea of doing a distillation with half of this.

Ended up just now filtering it off and adding the sugar syrup at half strength.

The 500gm of sugar makes it much more palleatable for me than high sweetness drinks, but the month of maceration has drawn off a bitterness from the peels.

Colour is good and is pictured here next to my Turkish Delight maceration which is getting it's hopefully last fitering today.

limencello1.jpg

Moving this to proven recipes, there's enough popularity for it.

[Swede]

I did this, and was amazed at how nice it is. Not bitter at all, even though I added hardly any sugar.

I used the zest of 4 lemons in a half mason jar of 95% (a bit less than 400ml, sorry, I rarely measure accurately 8-) ). The high proof alcohol pulled color and flavor within hours, and after 3 days, the lemon rind appeared white and spent.

I figured there was little point in leaving it to the point of bitterness, so I poured it off into a 750ml bottle. I dissolved 3 tsp white sugar in a little water, put this in and topped up with cool water. Total finished vol, 750ml, abv ~50% or so.

Note, it did louche much like punkins, and I have no issue with this, in fact, it reminds me of lemon meurrenge pie filling, in color and taste. I put much less sugar in than the above recipies, but i dont like sweet drinks, and found this quite pleasant and refreshing, without any citrus bitterness, just clean lemon taste, initally, and on the palette after a sip too :D

Tried some in a glass on ice with a splash of water, and I can say, this will be a staple here, as long as lemons are in season and affordable.

[SBB]

Ive been making a fair bit of this stuff and have found that the variety and quality of lemon used makes a huge difference to the end product. At the moment I have3 X 2.5L batches to compare. The one made using Eureka Lemons (supplied by (Stubbiedrainer) is by far the best at this point.