Italian Homemade Limoncello

One evening, as often happens, I was under my 3x3 meter wooden gazebo with some friends having dinner and chatting about this and that. At the end of the meal we were sipping a small glass of cold Limoncello and a friend of mine suggested: "Why don't you try making your own limoncello?".

The next day I was looking for the recipe online...

Limoncello is a world-famous traditional Italian lemon liqueur, known for its bright and refreshing citrusy flavor, achieved by infusing lemon peels in high-proof alcohol and adding only water and sugar. Precisely because of its simplicity, there are a myriad of recipes for its creation. I have read and checked many of them, but I have not found one that really refers to the specifications related to Limoncello. In fact, there is a fairly detailed specification, issued directly by the Italian Government, to regulate both production and sale of Limoncello.

Here you will find the recipe to prepare about 2.5 liters of homemade limoncello, following as much as possible the original specifications of the "LIQUORE DI LIMONE DI SORRENTO".

Ingredient/material list:

1. 8 organic untreated medium-sized lemons
2. One liter of drinking natural water
3. 800g granulated white sugar
4. One liter of 95°/96° pure alcohol
5. A vegetables peeler or a very sharp knife
6. A saucepan for making the sugar syrup
7. A large bowl for mixing the lemon alcohol with the sugar syrup
8. A fine mesh sieve
9. A steel ladle
10. A funnel (for bottling)
11. Coffee filter or cheesecloth (optional for better filtering)
12. Three one-liter airtight glass jars
13. 5 airtight bottles of 500ml

Let's start with the basic component: lemons. The specification speaks of a type of lemon that is difficult to find outside the Amalfi Coast or the Campania region, in Italy: "Sfusato Amalfitano" or "Ovale di Sorrento". A good healthy lemon, preferably organic and in any case with edible peel will be fine. Before peeling them, lemons must be cleaned of traces of soil, dust or other impurities using water. Rinse quickly the lemons thoroughly under cold running water and pat dry with a paper towel. Be gentle to avoid scrubbing too hard, as this can remove the essential oils in the peels.

How many lemons do we need? This question has no simple answer. The specification says that no less than 250g of lemons (not peels) must be used per liter of liqueur. To enrich the flavor, we will consider 250g of lemon peel (not lemons) per liter of alcohol and not per liter of final liqueur. Here we will use a liter of alcohol, so we will need exactly 250g of lemon peels.

From a medium-sized lemon we get about 35 grams of peel (it's really not much). To obtain 250g of peel, we will have to peel approximately eight lemons. Lemons can be peeled manually using a vegetables peeler and/or a very sharp knife, taking care to cut away as much of the flavedo (the yellow outer layer of the lemon peel, also called epicarp or zest) as possible. Too much white part will give the limoncello a bitter taste.

Peels infusion: Cut the peels into pieces and leave them to infuse with agricultural ethyl alcohol in one or more hermetically sealed glass jar, for a period of no less than 4 days (a week is fine), in a dark place away from heat sources, shaking the jar at least once a day.

A problem that arises if you do not have containers for the infusion of lemon peels of adequate capacity. Just divide the alcohol, more or less equally, into two or more containers and divide the peels according to the same criteria. Later, you will mix everything before bottling the finished product.

After this time, we have to prepare the sugar syrup. Heat the water in a large saucepan (it’s not necessary to boil it) and pour in all the sugar. Then stir until the sugar has completely dissolved and you have a smooth sugar syrup. Let it cool down until it has reached room temperature.

Now we have to add the syrup to the lemon peel jar. Shake gently the jar to blend the syrup and alcohol, then leave it to rest another week, in the dark and away from heat sources. If we have divided in more then one container the alcohol with the lemon peels, we will divide in the same way the sugar syrup.

Finally, mix all the containers together in a large bowl, filtering with a fine mesh sieve to remove the lemon peels and a coffee filter or cheesecloth (optional) to remove any residues if present, and bottle. Once bottled, let it rest for about a week.

Your homemade limoncello is ready to be consumed. Personally I recommend drinking it cold from the refrigerator, not freezing it in the freezer: the excessively cold liqueur loses much of its aromas. Enjoy your Limoncello as a digestive drink after dinner… Cheers!

If you prefer a sip of Hippocras (an aromatic wine made according to an ancient recipe) why not try making it yourself following my other tutorial: A medieval aromatic wine: Hippocras?

These are the main physical, chemical and/or organoleptic characteristics of the product according to the specifications:

1. Alcohol content by volume: not less than 30% by volume.
2. Sugar concentration not less than 200g/l and not more than 350g/l.
3. Color: yellow/citrine yellow
4. Appearance: from opalescent to clear.
5. Odor: characteristic of lemon
6. Taste: sweet and characteristic of lemon.

How to check the alcohol content of limoncello (and other similar homemade liqueurs):

The alcohol content of a liqueur is not calculated as a percentage of the quantity of liquids and other ingredients used, but as a percentage of their volume. To establish the final alcohol content, it is necessary to know the quantity (in volumes, i.e. in liters and fractions of a liter) of alcohol added and the total volume of the ingredients used.

The following is the approximate calculation of the alcohol percentage:

In our case, the quantity of alcohol used is one liter (1000ml) at 95%. This means that we have 950ml of pure alcohol plus 50ml of water.

The water used in our recipe is 1050ml (1000 ml plus the 50ml contained in the liter of alcohol).

There are also 800g of sugar which corresponds to a volume of 500ml (800g divided by the specific weight of sugar 1.6kg/l).

The water contained in the lemon peels is not significant for calculating the volumes.

So the composition of our limoncello contains 950ml of alcohol with a total volume of 2500ml (950ml of alcohol + 1050ml of water + 500ml of dissolved sugar).

The percentage value of alcohol in the final volume of the liqueur will be 38% (95 x 1000/2500 = 38). Using a 96° alcohol the percentage will rise to 38,4% (96 x 1000/2500 = 38,4). The sugar content of 320g/l falls correctly within the specification range of 200g/l - 350g/l.

GOVERNMENT WARNING:

(1) According to the Surgeon General, women should not drink alcoholic beverages during pregnancy because of the risk of birth defects.

(2) Consumption of alcoholic beverages impairs your ability to drive a car or operate machinery, and may cause health problems.