Homemade Melon Liqueur (Vargas and Gulling) Recipe

Miscellaneous Untried Recipes

This is from a collection of recipes from books I own, but which I haven't myself tried yet. However, you can have faith that at least the authors themselves have tried them, so they're not deadly or anything.

From Cordials From Your Kitchen by Pattie Vargas and Rich Gulling:

• 2 1/4 cups melon syrup
• 1 1/4 cups 100-proof vodka
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 tablespoon fresh squeezed lemon juice

Mix all ingredients, shake. Age incool, dark place for at least a month.

A sidebar on that page reads, "Melons, we thought, should be among the easies fruits to turn into liqueurs. They are simple to cut up, you get a lot of juice for your effort, and they taste good. We were wrong. Our high expectations for melon-flavored cordials were never realized. It's hard to tell what flavors are inside those deceptive rinds, so rather than thump, sniff, weigh, and hope to get lucky, we decided to try commercial flavorings. The results were more predictable, and the process was certainly easier."

Melon syrup is sold by Torani, makers of all those coffee syrups. Possibly others as well.