When life gives you lemons….
2020 has been a brutal year. It’s important during times like these to find resilience and the tools needed for self care. During life’s challenges, I often think about a teacher I had in elementary school, her name was Ms. Reinitz. I have little memory of my elementary education but I distinctly remember her passion for teaching and in incident where she arranged a family meeting.
Following my parents divorce my sister and I struggled within the continued adult disagreements. The fighting made even school life hard for us; so my third grader brain wanted Ms. Reinitz to stick up for us, solve all our problems, and make our parents get a long. I mean a third grade teacher is a master of classroom conflict resolution, so of course I expected the meeting to wipe away our turbulent home life.
I don’t remember much of the meeting, my brain does a great job of forgetting stressful events, but I remember at one point our parents were instructed to talk amongst themselves. In a separate corner of our local McDonald’s, Ms. Reinitz made it clear one meeting wasn’t going to solve our family’s problems. This wasn’t working the way I wanted, I wanted the adults to take responsibility, I wanted to be a kid, and not feel torn between two homes. I wanted resolution and stability where it wasn’t possible.
This is one of my first memories of the gut punch life likes to give us. The realization was difficult to process, and she sincerely looked at us at one point and said, “Sometimes when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade.”
In the years since that meeting, when facing adversity her advice continues to ring in my ears. My 2019 was challenging and then in 2020 the shutdown weighed further on my low mental resolve, so I decided to turn her advice into action.
Well with a bit of vodka added for and extra coping mechanism.
Cello turns bitterness sweet
Let’s face it while lemonade is great, alcohol is better. Thankfully the Italians have an easy to make liqueur combining the two. Limoncello is made from lemon zest, water, alcohol, and sugar. It is a natural spiked lemonade, it tastes like summer in a glass.
Cello is a project to make, while not complicated it does take time and patience. In learning to make this sweet lemony beverage it forces you to slow expectations and consider that the bitterness of life will need time to marinate before it transforms it into something grand.
For generations Italians have leveraged summer lemons to make this delicious liqueur. Some say limoncello was originally made to ward off colds, others insist it’s a byproduct monks over farming lemons on the coast, and others state it started as an innkeepers treat for welcoming travelers. Regardless of the origin, Limoncello has a common thread — it is meant to be shared.
The following recipe is based off over a hundred and twenty days of quarantine and test batches. My friends, neighbors and now you can enjoy the fruits of my quarantine project.
Lemon Cello Recipe
What you will need:
13 lemons
1 liter (4.2 cups) 90 proof vodka
1 wide mouthed large well sealed container
4 cups of sugar
4 cups water
What you are going to do:
1 Start by washing your lemons. Then using a potato peeler, remove the rind off the fruit in thin strips. Make sure you have as little of the pith as possible. Place rinds in your wide mouthed container and save your lemons for making other delicious treats.
2 Place liter of vodka in container and put away for 40 days in a dark dry place. Yes, 40 days… Please note: I prefer Nat Kidder Navy Strength Vodka which is 90 proof, but any vodka between 90 and 100 proof will do. Please see more on my vodka tests below.
3 At around 40 days make your simple syrup by placing 4 cups of sugar and an equal amount of water into a pot on the stove. On medium heat warm up the mixture until sugar is dissolved. Bring the liquid to a simmer then remove from heat, and let the syrup come to room temperature before proceeding.
4 Remove the rinds from the vodka, then strain the intense lemon liquid twice with a mesh or cheesecloth strainer (I prefer a metal mesh tea strainer). Place liquid into a larger container or pot and combine the yellowed vodka and simple syrup.
5 Place mix into sterilized bottles. I reuse wine bottles or these great bottles with a gasket lid.
Other delicious lemony treats:
Don’t let your lemons go to waste, you can freeze them whole to use later, or juice them and freeze the juice in ice cube trays or slice them up to make lemon simple syrup and candies lemon slices.
Here is a link I found to making candied lemon slices.
I like to remove as much of the pith as I can by peeling the white off the fruit one more time than slice the lemons and simmer them in simple syrup they can then be candied or used to make lemonade. The simple syrup used to simmer the slices is flavored nicely and the slices look beautiful floating in a pitcher. To do this take 3 cups water, 3 cups sugar and 3 lemons sliced up and bring them to a boil on the stove. Let the syrup cool. Then using the juice of another 3 lemons combine everything in a glass pitcher and add ice, water it down further to your taste.
I am not a fan of waste so once the rind has been stripped and dipped into it’s 40 day vodka bath I process the lemons in someway to make sure we enjoy the full fruit. Other things I have done include making Lemon Pie, lemon jelly or lemon curd.
Stumbles, Fumbles and Success
My confidence in my first batch of cello had me invested in trying other citrus based cellos. First I experimented with Cara Cara oranges and limes, then a friend asked me to try cantaloupe… Yes, cantaloupe. It turns out melon cello in Italy is also a thing.
Some of these deviations worked out well. My girlfriends love the lime cello and I enjoyed the cara cara based cello. The melon cellos were interesting. In doing some research the traditional meloncello is cream based. I followed a traditional recipe during my first try, while it tasted great the melon flavor was overpowered by the vanilla and cream. Plus cream is hard to preserve even with vodka, so I was not confident in its ability to last long.
Vodka types were also part of my experimentation. Most recipes called for a high proof Vodka, and I was impressed with how the range of proof affected the outcome of the liqueur. During my experimentation I tried: Tito’s & Kirkland Vodka (80 proof), Nat Kidder (90 Proof), Monarch (100 proof) and Everclear (120 proof). In my experiments the 80 proof vodka’s were smooth and easy to drink but lacked that liqueur quality once watered down by the simple syrup. The Everclear was a hit with my Midwest girlfriends but I felt it too harsh for my pallet. I mean if you are looking to make citrus flavored jet fuel it serves the purpose nicely but be warned and stay away from open flames while drinking.
In making these cellos I learned a lot. For example during one batch I learned that I am not an attentive cook, I tend to walk away from items and get preoccupied with some other task. In one instance, I failed so horribly I made Henna…. It turns out henna leaves are often simmered in lemon, sugar, and water. So, when I forgot a batch on the stove it resulted in a brown tar that stained my fingers for two weeks.
Like my life, my fumbles teach me areas for improvement. I’ve learned to I set timers, be patient and that I am horrible at making jelly. The past six months have been long, but when I think about the batches of cello I have produced, the bottles given to neighbors and the tastings conducted in my back yard life seems a little less bitter because the time was shared with friends.
I hope you have enjoyed this post and the recipes included. Please let me know if you take on a cello and if you feel it has sweetened your life.
