I can't give you an exact recipe, because I always end up tweaking each batch, but it's pretty straightforward. Steep the zests in Everclear for 2-4 weeks (about 10-15 lemons per bottle of Everclear, IIRC), strain, add syrup to taste and dilute with additional water (if desired) to lower the proof to your desired level. Some tips:
A) Zest only! Use a Microplane to avoid the pith, or use a vegetable peeler and scrape any pith off the back of your peels. Otherwise you will get some undesirable bitterness
B) Use organic lemons. Non-organic citrus gets coated with wax to make them look pretty at the store. It is a PITA to scrub this all off.
C) Add some juice, crystallized lemon (True Lemon powder is great for this), or citric acid back in at the end. You won't often see this in recipes, but all the good commercial limoncellos have anywhere from slight to noticible acidity. Otherwise you just get an insipid, sweet cordial with no balance. Not enough acidity to make your mouth pucker, but enough to invite another sip. This is what sets good commercial products apart from 'meh' homemade stuff.
I make different batch sizes (and different fruit), so I just have ballpark concentrations that I target. My most recent batch of pompelmocello was 90 proof, ~200g/L of sugar and ~300mg/L of citric acid, and it was well balanced. I'm thinking of making a small batch of limecello this winter. I'll probably target more like 70 proof, and bump up the tartness slightly with fresh or crystallized lime juice.
Topic: Limoncello Recipe (Read 642 times)
