Wssmom, have you made that Hendrick's gin concoction? How does the cucumber grassiness go with lemon? From the populairy of Hendrick's gins and tonics this may seem like an obvious question, but the tonic is really more quinine than lemony, so I am wondering...
If the point is to make a lemon-infused gin, why not go for a good, standard gin like Beefeater, start my droping the peals of two lemons into a bottle, and see how it smells/tastes/feels after two days?
I've made limoncello, beginning with microplaning lemons and leaving in 100-proof vodka for several weeks. This mixture is then mixed with water and sugar for the final limoncello mixture. My friends and I each made a batch and found that:
leaving even a little bit of pith on, from a peeler rather than microplane, adds a noticeable, but not necessarily unpleasant, depending on your palate. The winner of the taste text was a mixture of our favorite Meyer lemon version with our favorite Eureka lemon version. The Meyer lemons added an interesting herbaceousness, but weren't lemony enough.
In gin, with no plans to sweeten later, I'd go with a fairly short infusion time, or the botanicals of the gin might be masked by the lemon flavor. For limoncello I used the zest of 12-14 lemons for a 750 bottle of vodka, but I'd use less than that in gin, and I'd taste daily to see how strong the infusion is getting.
I've made lemon vodka, as the beginning of a limoncella. I only used the peel of lemons, cut into slices, and let that steep with the vodka. I must say that a batch or two never made it to the limoncella stage, but were instead mixed with various 'sodas' and were enjoyed. I've made a lime-infused vodka, as well, which is also very good. The key is allowing the vodka and fruit peels to sit for awhile - say 30 days.
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The site is a good resource for lots of cooking related things, but VERY technical.
If the point is to make a lemon-infused gin, why not go for a good, standard gin like Beefeater, start my droping the peals of two lemons into a bottle, and see how it smells/tastes/feels after two days?
leaving even a little bit of pith on, from a peeler rather than microplane, adds a noticeable, but not necessarily unpleasant, depending on your palate. The winner of the taste text was a mixture of our favorite Meyer lemon version with our favorite Eureka lemon version. The Meyer lemons added an interesting herbaceousness, but weren't lemony enough.
In gin, with no plans to sweeten later, I'd go with a fairly short infusion time, or the botanicals of the gin might be masked by the lemon flavor. For limoncello I used the zest of 12-14 lemons for a 750 bottle of vodka, but I'd use less than that in gin, and I'd taste daily to see how strong the infusion is getting.