Aside from the etrog blessing, is there anything else to do with this fruit? Did you know that the etrog is one of the five original citrus species that haven't undergone genetic modification, even when commercially cultivated? However, its peel is thick, its seeds are large, and it has little juice and a bitter taste. In short, this fruit can't be eaten like a grapefruit while watching TV or even squeezed into juice.
Certainly, our grandmothers used to make medicines from this fruit, but there is also another way to use this fruit: to make an alcoholic liqueur!
You can distill it into alcohol or make liqueur, and it turns out that this makes a very popular liqueur. Citrus peels are fragrant and rich in essential oils and are used to produce flavor extracts for the alcohol industry (it's one of the most popular flavors in flavored vodka, for example).
And in Israel too, there are those who make good drinks from it, like Pini and Nahum Gorlik, father and son followers of the Chabad movement, who are part of the largest citrus orchards in the country, who also make a crazy citrus liqueur called "Calabria" (named after the variety) and sell it sparingly in their Chabad village.
It all began when Pini's father, Rabbi Eliezer Gorlik, received an etrog blessed by the Lubavitcher Rebbe (an Italian variety that grows in the south of the country, hence the name "Caledria") as a gift. He decided to plant the seeds. Today, there are already four etrog orchards, all descendants of the same etrog blessed by the Rebbe.
How to prepare it?
Ingredients:
√ 5-4 lemons
√ 800 grams of sugar
√ 1 liter of water
√ 1 liter of alcohol (96% or 70%, for drinking. Not for medical use).
Scrub the etrogs well with soap and water and peel off their yellow-green outer shell with a peeler.
Soak the peelings in alcohol for 3 weeks in a sealed bottle. Stir gently twice a week.
Boil the water with the sugar (you can adjust the amount of sugar for a less sweet liqueur) and let it cool. Add the sugar water to the alcohol along with the peels, adjusting the amount according to your desired final alcohol content.
From experience – no less than 33% (that is about two-thirds sugar water and 96% alcohol) and no more than 45%.
Wait another two weeks. For added variety, you can add mint leaves or half a vanilla bean.
Drain the peels and fill a bottle. Drink ice cold!
A cup corresponds to 250 ml when I mention "cup" in my recipes. Here are two tables that will help you with your conversions if you don't have a cup!
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