How to Make Limoncello
This is basically a long-form of the Limoncello recipe that omits no details or explanations. If you plan to make Limoncello at home and have never tried it before, you should read this very closely.
Step One: Cut a hole in the box. (Just kidding.) The first step is actually to select your lemons. Whenever possible, select organic lemons because it’s actually the skin you use in making Limoncello and that’s also where all the pesticide is. Organic lemons also aren’t waxed, which is more crap that ends up in your liquor. Try to choose thick-skinned lemons with smooth skin. The reason for this is that it’s a heck of a lot easier to zest a lemon with smooth skin. And it kind of goes without saying that you should pick ones that don’t have stickers on them if possible.
Step Two: Wash the lemons. You’ll need to do this whether or not they are organic but if they aren’t organic it’s more of an ordeal. You need to scrub them under very warm water with a vegetable brush or some other plastic scrubber. Remove all stickers or stamps and as much of the wax as possible. Then dry them with a paper towel.
Step Three: Zest the lemons. Doing this step quickly and doing it well requires a Microplane Zester because anything else just doesn’t work in my experience. I like to put a cutting board or a large piece of aluminum foil down to catch all the zest. Then you just use the zester to remove a thin layer of zest from the whole lemon. If you get even a little bit of the white pith just below the zest, it will make your Limoncello bitter. So don’t take chances, if the lemon is bumpy and you can’t get all the zest without hitting the pith elsewhere, let it go. The lemon in the picture on the left has been zested. Notice how it is still yellow because I just removed the outer skin without touching the pith anywhere. This step is all about quality over quantity. My recipe calls for 2 more lemons than what you typically see because it is so important not to worry about not having enough zest here and digging into the lemon for more is not allowed. This step used to take me nearly two hours when I used other types of zesters or peelers but with the Microplane I can zest all 17 lemons in about half an hour.
Step Four: Filter the liquor. This should actually be done simultaneously with the zesting to save time. I use a Brita pitcher that I bought for this purpose but any similar water filtration pitcher will do. I pour one bottle in, let it filter, pour it into a regular clean pitcher, then back in the top and I repeat the filtration four times for each bottle of liquor. I’m still testing how worthwhile this is and how many filtrations are optimal but four is my current standard. I filter regardless of what kind of liquor I use.
Speaking of that, whenever possible I use grain alcohol for authenticity. It’s difficult to get because many states don’t allow it to be sold. I’ve found though that vodka has a flavor of its own that is imparted to the Limoncello and I’m not a big fan of that. However, it is much better than nothing so the next best thing is 100 proof, mid-grade Vodka. If you must, use the 80 proof but more alcohol is better for making Limoncello to a certain point. Use my alcohol percentage calculator to get it right on the first try.
Page 1 of 3 | Next page