Limoncello Alchemy

Ingredients:

• 750 ml bottle of grain alcohol
• 7 or 8 large lemons
• 5 cups water
• 3 cups sugar

What to do:

• Wash the lemons thoroughly.
• Using a peeler, take off the skins being careful not to get any of the white lemon “pith” onto your peelings (it will add bitterness to your limoncello).
• Put the peels into a large jar with the alcohol and seal the lid tightly. Put the date on the bottle.
• Put the jar in a cool, dry place for one week - once a day, shake the contents well to mix everything. You’ll notice the colour of the liquid changing to yellow and the colour of the lemon peels fading.
• One week later, dissolve the sugar completely in water by heating it on the stove. Then cool the sugar-water mixture to room temperature.
• Strain the lemon peels out of the alcohol and then mix the alcohol with the sugar-water. Usually the colour of the alcohol changes from clear yellow to cloudy yellow when it’s combined with the sugar-water.
• Pour the mixture into bottles which can be sealed tightly and store them in the freezer. If the limoncello is kept “frozen” until serving it becomes thick and syrupy. Take out of the freezer a little while before serving.

Note: pure 96% alcohol must be used and it should be diluted only after extraction, as 40% vodka does not extract all the oil flavours from the peel.

Check out this link: There are great photos of all the steps.