# Carlo Franco - Bootleggers???



## Chuck Franke (Aug 8, 2003)

Well there has been discussion before about Limoncello - the digestif (I think that's French for yummy after dinner drink) from Sorrento.

To remind - you take the zest off a couple dozen lemons that have not been 'treated' - go with naturally colored ones. The zester I use is just a razor blade - no white at all, you just want the yellow part of the peel. Anyway, you drop that into a gallon of pure alcohol or vodka (more alcohol content == better) and you let it sit for a month.

By that time, the alcohol has dissolved the natural oils in the zest and turns bright yellow, the zest turns hard and white.

Mix 1:3 with simple syrup (around 50 proof) and then strain and bottle, put in the freezer and drink as a one ounce after dinner treat in the summer. Being the way we are - we're bottling it for our friends - Jill did the label, the 'corking' stems from my Kentucky roots...



Note the one on the right is slightly stronger than the one on the left - it's bespoke and thus variable depending on who it was made for.


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## Mr. Golem (Mar 18, 2006)

That's quite an interesting drink and the label/cork and overall botteling is beautiful. My grandpa use to make his own Vodka. Yeah.. I'm Russian.


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## Wayfarer (Mar 19, 2006)

Chuck, quick question about the ratio:

1 part simply syrup or 1 part vodka/lemon infusion? I'll figure out the 3 parts if you help me with the one


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## Andy (Aug 25, 2002)

Mama mia, that looks wonderful! We had limoncello for the first time on a trip to Capri and were immediately addicted!


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## Chuck Franke (Aug 8, 2003)

Depends on the mix - store stuff is around 30 proof, ours is around 50-70 depending on whether or not we're finishing one while mixing another.

Typically, we mix 3:1 for around 50 prrof. Just killed a bottle between 4 people because well, it was evil and needed to die. One bottle is plenty for 4 folks.

If you use Vodka as the alcohol you start at 80-100 proof, if you use pure alcohol (195 proof) you can dilute with twice the amt of syrup.

It works


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## Andy (Aug 25, 2002)

*Good stuff!*

I had the pleasure of sampling a bit of the Jill & Chuck famous Limoncello last evening and I don't remember much of the rest of the evening :icon_smile_big: but the Limoncello was wonderful (I do remember that part!).


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## jcusey (Apr 19, 2003)

Sorry, Chuck. You can't be a bootlegger unless you distill the alcohol for the Limoncello base yourself. Using vodka or Everclear is perfectly legal (well, at least in Texas -- I think that some states may have banned retail sales of Everclear). Geez, you'd think a good ol' Kentucky boy would know this. :icon_smile_wink:


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## Jill (Sep 11, 2003)

Oh, please, John. Please don't give him any ideas...


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## Will (Jun 15, 2004)

Next perhaps he'll share the story of what happened after he filled a Jamaican rum cask with ganja and buried it for a year...


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## Jaguar (Feb 12, 2006)

Cool, have to try that. Props to Jill on the Manet.

~ Jaguar


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