Homemade Orange Peel Liqueur (Meilach) 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 Homemade Liqueurs by Dona and Mel Meilach:

• Peels only from 4 medium size oranges, scraped and cut into large chunks
• 3 cups vodka
• 1 cup sugar syrup

Combine all into aging container. Steep 2-3 weeks. (Extra peels can be added to the mixture as you eat more oranges, but they must be scraped.) Strain and filter, add syrup, let mature. Yield: 4 cups.

Optional Flavorings

For any or all of the above orange recipes, a pinch or 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon, coriander, whole cloves, or a piece of lemon peel scraped and cut. Also consider using honey instead of sugar syrup.

(1) Meilach and Meilach recommend peeling the oranges and then scraping the white pith inside off with an apple peeler. Basically you want only the orange rind portion. I've found it's faster, easier and gets better results if you use the apple peeler to thinly pare off the rind from the rest of the fruit.

(2) They don't specify how long to let it mature specifically. They recommend in the general introduction to citrus fruits at least a month, and then let it sit for up to four, depending on how much you want to serve it to someone. i.e. if you've got a party after two months, by all means, take the durned thing. But citrus peel liqueurs generally fare better the longer you let them sit.