The Limoncello Project

Hello all

This is my first time blogging and this was suggested that I do this because I have decided to make my own limoncello based on this NYTimes article. http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/08/case-study-presto-chango-limoncello/ I actually first heard about this through my Bon Appetit rss feed around Thanksgiving time. This is not the first time I have made some sort of liquor that takes many months of sitting. Last year, for Thanksgiving, I made bitters. They were wonderful, much to the surprise of my mother, who could not fathom that I would spend 2 months of my life futzing with a jar that needs to be inverted daily. The results were worth it...and all at my mother's house, maybe I should make more! But that is another time and another blog...

Now on to Limoncello. I have to say that I have a special place in my heart for the liquor as I spent 6 months in Italy and in general just love lemons. So according to the article, you need to suspend lemons above a volatile spirit (ie, a high proof spirit, like everclear or moonshine) and the volatility of the alcohol will diffuse into the lemon rind and not the bitter pith. In the article they call this DSM or delicious scientific magic. I'm a pharmacist, so on a chemical level, this really appeals to me. Here are the ingredients I used:

As you can see, you need a big jar (I found mine a Big Lots, love them!!), lemons, high proof alcohol (I used Everclear, thanks to my co-resident, Ravi, for giving me this for Christmas!! I would not have been able to do this without you, as they do not sell this stuff in PA), and cheesecloth (I actually used a jelly strainer, as it was a bag and seemed easier to maneuver with only one set of hands than cheesecloth. I found that in the canning aisle in the hardware store). Once I put it all together it looks like this:

And of course I had to label it with the date made and when to open:

Now this needs to sit for 9 weeks and I will be adding pictures weekly of the progress. Thanks for tuning in!!