The Limoncello Experiments v1.0, Part Two

As posted in the first part of this series, The Limoncello Experiments v1.0, I finally whipped up my first initial batches of Limoncello. After waiting patiently for two and a half weeks, it was time to finish the batches, chill them in the freezer and drink up. I could barely contain myself while waiting for the test batches to chill in the freezer!

Left to Right: Pallini, Paulie Gee, Roma Dishtowel, Limoncellojito, Paulie Gee with Agave Nectar

But first, a public service announcement from the Idiocracy Department to anyone thinking about making their own Limoncello; do NOT put your nose into the container you aged your grain alcohol and lemon peels in and inhale deeply. I did this to fully capture the aroma of the lemon infused alcohol and nearly burned off any nose hairs I have and singed out the mucous lining in my nose! Okay, maybe a bit of an exaggeration, but grain alcohol is serious stuff.

As mentioned in the original post, I added the amounts of water and sugar specified in Paulie Gee’s recipe to two of the batches, Batch A and Batch C.  Batch C had a pineapple mint leaf added to the lemon peels and remained in the alcohol and lemon peel mixture for the entire two and a half week infusion process.  In Batch D, I substituted Agave Nectar in the same weight as the sugar specified in the Paulie Gee recipe. Batch A got a dose of even more sugar, as specified by the Limoncello dishtowel I bought in Rome’s Campo dei Fiori while vacationing in Italy (the Campo area is the Pizza Blogger’s favorite section of Roma).

I have always wondered if Limoncello was artificially colored to obtain the often very bright yellow color found in commercially available products.  Based on my initial experiment, a two and a half week steeping period for the lemon and alcohol infusion extracts all of the color necessary from the lemon rinds to give a yellow tint to the finished product, as evidenced in the pictures below. Notice how the lemon peels in the strainer have been stripped of almost all of their color.

Strained Limoncello Mixture & Agave Nectar

After some time getting very cold in the freezer, it was time to taste the finished results! I used a commercially available product that I enjoy very much, Pallini Limoncello, as a control sample to compare the quality and flavor of the home made batches to. With the samples lined up, it was time to drink…..I was very excited like a little kid waiting anxiously for their birthday party to arrive.

Hot mixtures after adding sugar water. All labelled and ready for the deep freeze.

First off was the Pallini Limoncello. I drink this quite often and it is one of my favorite commercially available Limoncello liqueurs. It has a very good balance between tartness and sweetness, with a very pleasant silky texture which coats the mouth in zesty flavors. It pushes the sweetness envelope a little perhaps, but the balance of tart, sweet and alcohol in this product, in combination with a lasting finish, is a winner. I would like even a little more lemon tartness, but this is close to what I prefer.

Onto the test batches!

Batch A (Roma Dishtowel): While it looked more watery than any of the other batches, due to a smaller amount of lemon peels used in the infusion, this was the most similar to the Pallin product of the batches I made. I was afraid the additional sugar specified in this recipe, when compared to the lesser amount specified in the Paulie Gee recipe, would lead to a product much too sweet for my tastes. The sweetness was only moderately increased by the additional sugar, but the additional sugar definitely increased the texture of the finished product. It had more of a velvety texture than the Paulie Gee batches, but not the level of lemon tartness I desire, due to the smaller amount of lemon peel specified by the Roma Dishtowel. Good mouth feel and balance between alcohol and lemon tartness, but more lemon tartness definitely needed.

Batch B (Paulie Gee): The Paulie Gee batches looked the most like the Pallini product. This batch had much more of an alcohol presence in the aroma/nose than either the Roma Dishtowel or the Pallini limoncellos.  The flavor of the tart lemon essence, while definitely more muted than the Pallini product, was cleaner.  This was only slightly less sweet than the Roma Dishtowel recipe, but the smaller amount of sugar called for by Paulie Gee resulted in a finished product with much more of noticeable alcoholic punch and slightly thinner texture. Very clean lemon flavors, but a little too much of an alcoholic note which needs a little more mouth feel to even out the balance and allow the lemon tartness to come through even more.

Batch C (Paulie Gee with mint”Limoncellojito”): I added one pineapple mint leaf to this batch (an equivalent of four leaves if making a full batch….these were all 1/4 sized test batches) and it was not enough to give any real discernible mint note to the finished product. It did change the taste of the lemon, if only by a slight amount, and not in a pleasing way…..the lemon flavor was not as fresh as in the other batches.  After a two and a half week steep in the alcohol-lemon infusion, the leaf was completely brown and curled up. I suspect the extended stay began to extract woody flavors from the shrivelled up mint leaf. In the future, I will steep fresh mint leaves in the hot water used to dissolve the sugar just before bottling, in an effort to only extract clean mint flavors to compliment the finished product.

Batch D (Paulie Gee, but substituting Agave Nectar for the sugar): As evidenced by the pictures in this post, the Agave Nectar actually changed the color of the finished product. As a side note, the Pizza Blogger has been a big fan of agave nectar for several years now, as it is a must have ingredient in a great margarita (more on this later). Batch D looked more like an orange colored Aranciata than Limoncello. As I expected, this batch had the most silky texture, coating the mouth in a fashion much more similar to the Pallini product.  In addition, the agave nectar also reigned in the alcoholic note of the batch, both in the aroma and in the flavor, resulting in a more balanced product. However, while not sweeter than the other batches, the agave nectar added too much of its own taste component, somewhat cloying the freshness of the tart lemon flavor.

Left to right: Pallini, Paulie Gee, Roma Dishtowel, Limoncellojito, Paulie Gee with agave nectar

In the end, Batches A, B and D are all very good and pleasant to drink. I would be very pleased to offer these to anyone and look forward to drinking these.

I’m very happy with the results of this experiment and had a lot of fun in the process, but I am not satiated! I want more…..a more overall tart product with a better balance between alcohol and lemon notes and with a silky mouth feel which doesn’t cloy the freshness of the lemon essence. My guess is the road to a more perfect limoncello, at least for the Pizza Blogger household, is some combination of the Roma Dishtowel and Paulie Gee recipes, with perhaps the combination in the amount of sugar specified in the dishtowel recipe with the increased lemons called for by Paulie Gee being closer to the mark. My next experiments will use more test batches with varying amounts of sugar, more lemons and potentially even adding small amounts of fresh squeezed lemon juice just before bottling to give it an added boost of sunshine kissed lemon essence.

Making Limoncello at home is a lot of fun, is relatively easy to do and is very rewarding. This will become a new tradition in the Blogger household…..thanks for the inspiration Mr. Gee! Limoncello serves well as an aperitif before a meal, as a finishing drink to a meal, goes well with pizza, is wonderful drizzled over gelato and is a perfect night cap on its own. I highly suggest you try making a batch yourself! Here is Paulie Gee’s recipe, which is very good, to put you on the right path to tasty Limoncello. I’ll follow up this post with continuing experiments and a recipe of my own, when I have dialed in my version.

Go grab some organic lemons (don’t want all those pesticides in your finished product and you don’t want to wash off essential oils from the rinds), some Everclear, some sugar and whip up a batch for yourself….whaddya waiting for? – Cheers!

UPDATE: Pizzablogger’s Homemade Limoncello