George Sand

I, too, have been making limoncello following ideas from these posts for a couple of years. Luckily I can easily get organic citrus from the Santa Monica farmers' market. Based on my experience, particularly this year, I'm concluding that timing (within the growing season and any time spent in storage) is key, particularly when using Meyer lemons. My first experience a couple of years ago was late in the season, the results were OK, but nothing special. This year I started early in the season (January); the lemons were so fresh they perfumed the house. The results were shockingly amazing. I made multiple batches throughout the season, every couple of weeks, using fruit from the same farmer. I noticed the lemon smell was never as strong -- either because it was later in the season, or they had been sitting in storage. The resulting limoncello was good, but never quite as amazing as the first batch. Also, this year I added about 1 cup of Meyer lemon juice after the steeping period. I think it adds a little more complexity to the taste. I needed to filter the finished limoncello again a couple weeks after the initial filtering.

Thanks for the recipe -- it's really great marmalade. I did discover that it cooks faster than I expected and that I didn't need to cook to 112C to set. It's the end of the Seville season here, so next year!