Homemade Limoncello with A Twist – Day 1

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A couple of weeks ago, Jamie wrote a post about homemade Limoncello. It was an enlightening read for me because although I knew Limoncello mostly homemade in Italy, it never occurred to me to try making my own. Especially when I can make three bottles at home for the price of a store-bought one, but also have full control over the quality, strength and sweetness of the final product.

As I cruised the web trying to further my knowledge of this Southern Italian liqueur, I came across interesting variations of the traditional recipe. One that tickled my fancy was Zenzerino, a ginger-infused version of Limoncello. Unlike Limoncello, Zenzerino calls for orange peel instead of lemon. However, I wanted to stick with the lemon flavor mainly because my palate prefers the combination of lemon and ginger. Since this is my first attempt to make Limoncello, I decided to make two batches – one of “Gi-moncello”, ginger-infused Limoncello and one of the traditional recipe (just in case the “Gi-moncello” flops). The recipe I’m using is adapted from Jamie’s and a few others I found on the internet. Since the process takes a few weeks from start to finish, I will periodically post picture updates of the progress until completion.

Ingredients
1 liter of 160-proof vodka
7 lemons
1/2 pound of ginger
2 cups of sugar
2 cups of distilled water
2 airtight containers

Soak the lemons in hot water for 5 minutes and then wash them with a vegetable brush to remove any wax.

Dry the lemons with a paper towel and remove the yellow peel with a vegetable peeler. Make sure not to get any of the white pith. If you accidentally get some white pith, scrape it off with a knife or a spoon. You can also use a Microplane grater if you own one. When you’re done with the lemons, peel and finely dice the ginger.

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Place half of the lemon peels in each container. Add the ginger to one of the containers. Follow by pouring half of the vodka in each container. To ensure that each container is tightly sealed, I covered it with some adhesive plastic wrap before putting the lid on.

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