Making Homemade Orangecello: Part Two

By Chuck Sudo in Food on Apr 25, 2006 6:00PM

As you can see from the photo it qualifies as soup, but we still have another month to go before we can call it orangecello. Last month Chicagoist started a three-part series showing how we make orangecello, just in time for grilling season. When we last checked in on our vodka-and-orange-peel mixture we were letting it sit at room temperature for ten days before we moving it to a cool, dark place for another thirty days - under our kitchen sink. Had we not checked our to-do list we would have completely forgotten about this. With Chicagoist nearing a long-needed vacation next week this quickly shot up on our list of tasks, lest we not have orangecello ready to christen our new smoker on Memorial Day.

We pulled the mixture out from storage and were quite impressed by the murky color of the mix. Clearly, the oils and color from the orange peel had seeped into the vodka. The orange peel also emitted a strong aroma in the vodka. Judging from this, Chicagoist was ready for the next step. We prepared a thick syrup using four cups of sugar and five cups of water. We stirred this syrup in a saucepan, over medium-high heat, for five to seven minutes until it reached the proper consistency - a thick, viscous mix. Then we removed the pan from the burner and allowed it to cool, about 10 minutes.

Once the syrup cooled, we added it to the vodka/orange peel mixture, along with another fifth of vodka, stirring everything in the jar thoroughly. Before replacing the lid, we sneaked a taste of the newly constituted broth and were pleasantly surprised by its flavor. Although the finished product is still a month away, we can begin to taste and see traces of what to expect. Satisfied, we returned the mixture back under our kitchen sink, where it will stay forgotten until we suffer from writer's block again.

Chicagoist feels like we've got something special distilling here. We'll post the final part next month.