............giant, Mother of All Lemons......you make Limoncello!
Deborah and the Giant Lemon!
Next to a Valencia orange for scale:
"That's as big as my head!" ~Danger
Many thanks to my aunt and uncle, Susan and Don Taylor of Fernandina Beach, FL.
They picked this mutant Meyer lemon this weekend for me out of their backyard. ONE Mega lemon has enough zest to make a liter of limoncello! There is enough juice in one of these to make a pitcher of lemonade!
Here is the recipe I like to use for Limoncello, thanks to Giada De Laurentiis
I do, however, make it as "Florida" as possible. I am not aware of any vodka being made in Florida, so I usually use Stolichnaya.
I'm going to make another batch this weekend with Firefly Straight Vodka, from Wadamalaw Island, SC. This delight from Capri is going to be as Southern as it can be!
Modifications to the recipe for a superior product:
I use organic Florida Crystals granulated sugar, and I use 1/2 the water, and 1/2 the sugar that this recipe calls for. The final product is sharper, tangy and just sweet enough.
I also zest the lemon with a microplane instead of peeling it.
I find I get a better final product when I let the lemon zest steep in the vodka at room temperature for 3-5 days instead of overnight. The alcohol has more time to extract the delicious essential oils of the lemon, according to another recipe.
Don't let this stuff sit at room temperature for too long once the simple syrup is mixed in, otherwise bacteria and fungi will move in!
You can use regular lemon zest for this too, in case you don't have access to home-grown Chernobyl lemons!
Chill the final product for at least overnight before serving. It is so refreshing on a warm summer day! (If it lasts that long)
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