Middle Kingdom Limoncello

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Limoncello is native to the citrus growing region along southern Italy's Amalfi Coast, but it can be home made in Kunming as well. We have an abundance of fresh, full-flavored citrus, especially in the cooler months of the year. If silk and porcelain and tea could make their way west centuries ago, no reason why the caravan cannot now head back to the east.

 

Home made limoncello has always been the best kind, with a taste more fruity and fresh than commercial brands. It is traditionally enjoyed as a post-prandial digestif, served cold in a small glass right after eating. It is also loved as an aperitif, before the meal. Or it can be turned into a tall drink with club soda or tonic water. It is sunny and bursting with fresh lemon/citrus flavor. Let me show you how I make it.

 

Buy a couple of bottles of trusty and potent Red Star Er Guo Tou 红星二锅头, which is known and maybe loved/maybe hated by every Old China Hand worth his salt. This notorious 白酒  is 52% alcohol, making it over 100 proof. One of the beauties of this recipe is that it is a way of "taming the dragon" -- transforming this fiery "rocket fuel" Er Guo Tou even beyond the palatable, actually turning it into a beverage which is smooth and enjoyable.

 

 

 

 

This is the famous grain neutral spirit that is sold in every hole in the wall lunch stand in "unit dose" sized bottles. You regularly see hard hat guys knocking it back with their noodles.  A 500 ml bottle of this powerful concoction costs the princely sum of 13 Yuan and 50 Mao. I used a bottle and a half, about 750 ml, just because of the size of my containers. The Er Guo Tou distillery produces some other whiskey that is more refined and lower proof. Don't need it; this original wild potion does just fine at a price which cannot be beat, only pennies more pricey than Coca Cola.

 

Buy four to six nice firm lemons, preferably from the market where they haven't been sprayed with wax to extend their shelf life (as is common in the US.) Oranges are prime just now and I bought five of those along with my five lemons. Limoncello can easily be modified by using part tangerines or grapefruit. I've experimented with youzi 柚子 (pomelo) and the small green limes 青柠蒙  that are so popular here. Both have very thin skin, making them difficult to use. But mixing lemon with another citrus fruit makes the resulting liqueur have a less aggressive character; sort of rounds it out.

 

 

 

 

 

Scrub them well with a vegetable brush and sharpen your best paring knife. The goal is to deftly remove the yellow zest with very, very little of the bitter white pith underneath. I used a ceramic-blade peeler and the paring knife. It takes some time to do this right. One can alternatively use a micro-plane grater, but it will make the finished product slightly cloudy.

 

Do the same with the oranges. Just like the lemons in the picture above, you can see the full thickness peel on the left, the white pith sliced away with careful scalpel strokes, leaving the finished peel on the right. I pull a chair up to the table, set it all out on a cutting board, put in earphones with some Bach or Beethoven, and take my time. Let my mind go blank into that semi-meditative 刀法 zone. (daofa = knife skills)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you work, drop the finished peels into a big wide-mouth jar that contains your alcohol.

 

 

 

Screw the lid on tight. If the fit is not snug, put a piece of Saran wrap 保鲜膜 over the top before sealing. To backtrack a moment, Er Guo Tou is really not the only way to go. Everclear plain grain alcohol would do, but I've never seen it for sale in China. Similarly, vodka is ok, but you need the 100 proof kind, which is nearly impossible to find. You want a high alcohol content because it acts as a solvent and puts the aromatic elements of the fruit into solution.

 

Set this jar up on a shelf for at least a week. Every day or two agitate it gently. Some schools of though call for leaving it like that for a month or more. A week is as long as I've personally been able to delay. Maybe resting it longer would make it a hundred times better, but I will probably never know.

 

After a week, it is time to make it sweet. This is done with a Chinese version of simple syrup. Bing tang, Chinese rock sugar, 冰糖 adds an element of smoothness that works with the Er Guo Tou like the two were made for each other.

 

 

 

 

 

I used a cup of rock sugar and three cups of water. This will make the finished product about 50 proof, which is about right for my palate. You could use less water or more depending on your personal preference. Bring the sugar to a gentle boil in a saucepan, stirring off and on until it's all dissolved. After that, be sure to let it cool completely to room temperature. If you rush that step the resulting brew will be muddy in appearance.

 

Now pour the cooled simple syrup into the alcohol and citrus peels. Seal the jar again and let it stand overnight. My jar wasn't big enough to hold it all, so I improvised with a clean ceramic casserole.

 

 

 

Next morning strain it into a bottle. I used a fine mesh strainer first, set in a large funnel, then did it twice more with cheese cloth. One can also use a coffee filter, but I didn't have one. When you do this, don't be greedy. Don't try and press all the liquid through with a wooden spoon or such, determined to get the very last drop. The reason is that this would push through the unwanted crud attached to the peels; stuff  that you would like to discard.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's my finished product. You can smell the citrus across the room. And the taste is smooth, without that ferocious 白酒 bite. I poured mine into a saved vodka bottle because it's the right size to fit in my fridge. This finished limoncello doesn't absolutely have to be refrigerated, but it keeps longer like this so I don't feel compelled to guzzle it too fast. Safe for a month or more. It still seems to disappear pretty smartly on its own; I sometimes think there must be some refrigerator mice with straws at work after lights out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Why have I included a picture of ginger? Because I thought I would tell you a Chinese herbal secret. This limoncello is fantastic served hot with an additional squeeze of lemon or lime and several slices of fresh ginger. Put the juice, ginger, and a generous shot of limoncello into a mug and fill it with nearly-boiling water. In the technical parlance of Traditional Chinese Medicine, it will "cure what ails you."

 

So you have wound up with a bottle of first rate home-made joy that can be served strait as an aperitif, mixed tall with club soda or tonic water, taken after the meal to settle things, or utilized as medicine to chase away the winter vapors. Can't go wrong with that. Give it a try and see what you think.

[Shelley]

It sounds lovely. I don't touch alcohol so its not for me, but the lemony citrous flavour sounds good.

 

A tall glass with ice and home-made lemonade brings back memories of summers in Ohio by the pool. Yummy

[Tomsima]

This is fantastic! Definitely gonna give it a try, off to the market I go tomorrow! Will have to post an update when mines done, thanks for posting!

[ChTTay]

Yes, once I get back to Beijing after Xmas I’m going to try this! Certainly will make an unusual drink to bring to a party. 

 

Great stuff 

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On 12/13/2017 at 6:37 AM, Shelley said:

A tall glass with ice and home-made lemonade brings back memories of summers in Ohio by the pool. Yummy

 

In the process of harvesting the peels to make the limoncello, one winds up with lots of freshly-peeled lemons and oranges. They are a noble byproduct of the process and I use them for a big batch of lemonade, while usually just eating the oranges.

 

I use local Yunnan honey to make it, bought from the honey store around the corner where they offer a dozen different kinds in large floor-standing vats. Each honey comes from a colony of bees that is working primarily near a certain kind of flower. So the taste of this honey is not the same as that honey. 

 

So sometimes I buy rose flower honey, other times jasmine or clover. Recently the 枣花蜂蜜 has been excellent, made from the flowers that cover the jujube date trees (zao hua) before the fruit sets and becomes first 青枣 and eventually 红枣。The owner and his wife let me spend time tasting the various honey before making the decision to commit to one kind or another. 

 

Here he is topping me up yesterday morning. The honey is sold by weight, since some kinds are more dense than others. These honeys have been filtered, but otherwise not processed. 

 

[Alex_Hart]

Looks like a lovely recipe, abcd. I would never have thought to use 白酒 for it, but I will definitely be trying this somewhere down the line!

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17 minutes ago, Alex_Hart said:

I would never have thought to use 白酒 for it...

 

Baijiu 白酒 distilled from grain, such as 二锅头 which is made from sorghum, works well. I don't think 白酒 made from rice would have a suitable taste.  

[ChTTay]

I’ve got a small batch on the go right now. I had no container suitable though so just used a 5L NONGFU water bottle that had a wide mouth. It’s just going to be brewing a week so should be okay I think. 

 

Will post a photo photo of the finished product along with a taste test! 

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That should work fine. I always have to wind up improvising at some point along the way too. Hope that your batch is a success! Look forward to a "user review."

 

I'm in the US now on my annual trip. When I get back to Kunming, I plan to try it again and this time let it steep a really long time. Would like to see first hand whether that makes a difference in how smooth it tastes. 

[Alex_Hart]

23 hours ago, ChTTay said:

I’ve got a small batch on the go right now. I had no container suitable though so just used a 5L NONGFU water bottle that had a wide mouth. It’s just going to be brewing a week so should be okay I think. 

 

The use of a plastic bottle sounds more authentically "Middle Kingdom" anyway. Drank a lot of home distilled baijiu this way. I also buy my cooking wine from a neighborhood auntie who just puts it in plastic bottles - I've always wondered if she just picks up bottles off the street, but have been too afraid to ask.

[ChTTay]

2 hours ago, Alex_Hart said:

Drank a lot of home distilled baijiu this way

 

You mean you have brewed BaiJiu? Or just had it like that?

 

yeah, the plastic bottle was the cheapest way I could come up with. Juice bottle was a better size but I don’t drink juice really. 

 

I don’t have a nice glass bottle for the end product though. Likely a green S.Pellegrino bottle!

[Alex_Hart]

12 hours ago, ChTTay said:

You mean you have brewed BaiJiu? Or just had it like that?

 

Definitely isn't me brewing it! I'm often offered home distilled 白酒 while visiting friends or meeting new people, especially in smaller villages. Even at weddings, many guests bring their own 白酒 because they think it tastes better than the stuff you can buy. Unless it's a special occasion, the alcohol invariably is poured out of a large 农夫山泉 bottle. I usually feel guilty declining a glass.

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What I get offered a lot when eating at friends homes is home-made fruit liquors, which have been made by steeping fruit and sugar in cheap generic baijiu, purchased in bulk. Thinking back, nearly every home I visit for a meal here seems to have some. The exceptions would be young working couples, who are too busy to do much in the kitchen. 

 

The most common kind here (Kunming) by a wide margin is one made from Yangmei 杨梅 in the late spring and early summer. I've tried my hand at it. Easy if you have access to the fresh fruit and it tastes pretty good. Of course it's fruity and sweet, so might not appeal to all tastes. 

 

https://www.chinese-forums.com/forums/topic/54402-yang-mei-season-杨梅-the-chinese-bayberry/ 

 

Here the glass or plastic jugs for making and storing home made liquors are easily available in the market and even in supermarkets like WalMart and Carrefour. They come in a large range of sizes and shapes; generally inexpensive, starting at about 10 Yuan. 

[Alex_Hart]

On 1/28/2018 at 11:27 PM, abcdefg said:

What I get offered a lot when eating at friends homes is home-made fruit liquors, which have been made by steeping fruit and sugar in cheap generic baijiu, purchased in bulk. Thinking back, nearly every home I visit for a meal seems to have some. The exceptions would be young working couples, who are too busy to do much in the kitchen. 

 

I had this in Lijiang. I had come down with a rather frightful case of food poisoning - 4 days totally bedridden and unable to hold down even the most watered down congee, rich and spicy foods caused painful cramps for another month or two after that - spent my layover time a week later in Kunming eating toast for every meal. Owner of the hostel was a jovial Chinese guy and brought me glasses of 杨梅 liquor often. The smell was enough to send me scurrying to the bathroom, but he kept coming back! My bunk mate was a Spanish man traveling around China with his guitar and he similarly tried to cure my food poisoning my blowing "Dalifornia" marijuana smoke in my face. 

 

I did taste it a few times, there and elsewhere. Usually tastes pretty good, though some have tasted rather funky. Definitely preferable to some of the Chinese medicine infusions I've had.

[ChTTay]

So I made and drank my BaiJiu Limoncello!

 

Worked pretty well I thought and the amount came out almost exactly 750ml: perfect for the old glass Perrier water bottle I was using.

 

I made it for a friends stag do so between 7 of us it was gone in about 20 minutes. Actually, it still tastes very “BaiJiu” to me and I didn’t really like it haha it was certainly a more mellow flavour though. Luckily my friends liked it more than me. 

 

I think it would work well mixed with 北冰洋 orange soda. 

 

The process was easy though and I’d be pretty interested in trying it again, perhaps with more citrus and more sugar and leaving it for longer. I’d also be interested in trying to add other fruits. 

 

No photos unfortunately but it came out looking like ABCDEFG’s! 

 

I’d definitely recommend doing this though. Bring it to a party or give it to someone Chinese as a more thoughtful gift. I noticed Carrefour has glass bottles with those plastic cork style tops  that some beers use. I was tempted but I didn’t think I could bring it back. 

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11 hours ago, ChTTay said:

I think it would work well mixed with 北冰洋 orange soda. 

 

Glad it came out more or less OK. Letting it stand longer does improve the smoothness and make it have less of that rough Baijiu mouth feel 口感。

 

Sounds like a good idea. I've mixed it with tonic water 汤力水 in a tall glass with ice cubes. That is a good warm-weather drink, and the tonic makes it less sweet. 

 

My favorite way to drink this is at night as a hot toddy. Several slices of ginger in a coffee mug. Add a couple jiggers of limoncello, top with boiling water. The ginger-lemon mix of flavors is traditional here. Also supposed to have some health properties. Warms you up on a cold night. 

[ChTTay]

My friends all enjoyed it for the most part. Regardless of the flavour, it’s still 56% or whatever so it’s going to have some bite! 

 

Ever done anything with dates or other dark/red fruits? I feel like that would be good too. 

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8 hours ago, ChTTay said:

Ever done anything with dates or other dark/red fruits? I feel like that would be good too. 

 

Never tried dates or similar. Have made some with yangmei 杨梅 and one batch using yangmei plus mango. The plain yangmei liqueur was better than the combo. When making these I leave the fruit in the finished product instead of straining it out. It remains good to eat for several months; alcohol infused. 

[ChTTay]

Getting ready for another batch of this stuff now.  

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9 hours ago, ChTTay said:

Getting ready for another batch of this stuff now.

 

What fruit are you using?