{"id":2050,"date":"2013-10-17T11:41:41","date_gmt":"2013-10-17T17:41:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newstayathomemom.com\/?p=2050"},"modified":"2013-10-17T11:41:51","modified_gmt":"2013-10-17T17:41:51","slug":"making-limoncello","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newstayathomemom.com\/?p=2050","title":{"rendered":"Making Limoncello"},"content":{"rendered":"

You know what\u2019s totally wack?\u00a0 That my A.P.* biology lab partner senior year of highschool ended up MARRYING our A.P.* biology teacher.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Wacky, no??\u00a0 Not only is that against some rule somewhere\u2026but we ALL (including my lab partner) thought our teacher\u00a0was SUCH a NERD.\u00a0 Especially when he would talk about the poinsettia growing operation he had in the basement of his landlord\u2019s house.\u00a0 Or when he brought in that huge bumblebee-on-a-leash which he flew around the classroom.\u00a0 (Dork!<\/em>)\u00a0 So why end up MARRYING the guy?!?\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

You know what ELSE is totally wack?\u00a0 The fact that I went into college with\u00a0a declared Biology\u00a0major.\u00a0 But then switched to Management and French majors after my run-in with Chemistry.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Huh?\u00a0 What’s Chemistry got to do with anything?!\u00a0 In my college, most Biology majors ended up DOUBLE majoring in Chemistry, that\u2019s how many Chemistry classes were required as part of the Biology major.\u00a0 So when I got a \u2018D\u2019 in Frosh Chemistry (yes a \u2018D\u2019 and you can\u2019t POSSIBLY be any more surprised or displeased about that grade than my Chemical Engineer father who yelled down the phone line, \u201cWHAT\u2026don\u2019t you UNDERSTAND\u2026about CHEMISTRY<\/em>?!??!\u201d when he found out about the grade.\u00a0 So you others?\u00a0 You others can just SHUT IT!\u00a0 It\u2019s all already been said.\u00a0 And for the record, the answer to Dad\u2019s question is: anything.\u00a0 I don\u2019t understand ANYTHING.\u00a0 Not a single thing.\u00a0 About Chemistry.)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Which brings us to our FINAL wack thing.\u00a0 Given my history with Chemistry (well\u2026and math \u2013 unless chemistry and math are actually the same thing?\u00a0 Which they could be.\u00a0 Given my history.), I\u2019m now trying to make limoncello (an Italian lemon-flavored liquor) out of lemon rinds and grain alcohol and sugar-water.\u00a0 (Neighbors & Friends: please act surprised and pleased if you receive limoncello from me as a Christmas gift.) <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I had to phone-a-friend (my Chemical Engineer Dad) for some help figuring out how much sugar-water to add to the grain alcohol to make it palatable.\u00a0 Here\u2019s the response I got:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Hi,<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

It’s not clear to me as to exactly how much of the 190 proof starting material you have. \u00a0Is it 750 ml? \u00a0If it is 750 ml, you are starting with 3.2 cups.\u00a0 <\/span><\/em><\/strong>(946.6 ml = 1.0 qt) and (1 qt = 4 cups). \u00a0Therefore 1 cup = 946.6\/4 = 236.6 ml. \u00a0 \u00a0If you are starting with \u00a0750 ml then 750\/236.6 = 3.2 cups.\u00a0 <\/span><\/em><\/strong>Plugging the 3.2 cups into the calculator, 95 for starting alcohol, and 35 for final \u00a0says that you should add 5.5 cups of syrup. \u00a0Another way of thinking about it is if you start with 3.2 cups of 95 proof, roughly you should wind up with about 9 cups of 35 proof. (You are cutting it to about a third \u00a0of the proof you started with so you should wind up with about three times the amount you started with. ( 3.2 + 5.5=about 9))\u00a0 <\/span><\/em><\/strong>Tell me how much of the starting material of 190 proof you have and I will double-check the calculations.\u00a0 <\/span><\/em><\/strong>Incidentally I checked the vodka (and gin) in the cupboard and they are 80 proof. \u00a0But for a liquour 70 proof should be fine.<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Hic, Dad<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what I read:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Hi,<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Math, math and more math.\u00a0 And now let\u2019s mention things that will give you a flashback to that \u2018D\u2019 in college Chemistry.\u00a0 I won\u2019t directly mention the number of molecules in a mole \u2013 or ANYTHING about Avogadro\u2019s constant \u2013 but I will allude to it.\u00a0 Finally, we\u2019ll throw in some more math.\u00a0 Why were you never good at math?\u00a0 Or chemistry??\u00a0 We always let you live another day, so you must have had something going for you.\u00a0 But your mad math and chemistry skillz?\u00a0 Terrible.\u00a0 Just terrible.<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

His in Christ,\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/em><\/strong>Dad<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Uh\u2026ok.\u00a0 And for an extra credit\u00a0homework assignment,\u00a0 I had\u00a0to\u00a0figure out how much STARTING material of sugar AND water I\u00a0needed in order to END UP with 5.5 cups of sugar-water.\u00a0 (Math alert!\u00a0 Math alert!!)\u00a0 Also?\u00a0 Does water boiling at a lower temperature here in Colorado have anything to do with anything??\u00a0 (Chemistry!\u00a0 CHEMISTRY!!!\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Abort mission!\u00a0 ABORT MISSION!!!)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

But no.\u00a0 I can\u2019t let 750 mls (or 3.2 cups) of God-given grain alcohol go to waste.\u00a0 So I soldiered on, despite the hitch in my math-and-chemistry giddyup.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

So again, Friends and Neighbors?\u00a0 Prepare to be\u00a0AMAAAAZED come Christmas-time!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

*A. P. stands for Advanced Placement.\u00a0 You gotta be pretty dedicated to your field-of-interest to be taking these college-level courses in highschool.\u00a0 Come to think of it\u2026I\u00a0also took A.P. French classes \u2013 AND took\u00a0that placement test that allowed me to skip all of those College Freshmen French classes \u2013 which put me so far ahead of the curve I was able\u00a0to major in French.\u00a0 So screw Chemistry.\u00a0 Maybe FRENCH was the plan all along.\u00a0 Now why won\u2019t someone hire me already?\u00a0 I have a Bachelor\u2019s degree in FRENCH, for Heaven\u2019s sake!!!\u00a0 Put THAT in your pipette and titrate it!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You know what\u2019s totally wack?\u00a0 That my A.P.* biology lab partner senior year of highschool ended up MARRYING our A.P.* biology teacher.\u00a0 Wacky, no??\u00a0 Not only is that against some rule somewhere\u2026but we ALL (including my lab partner) thought our teacher\u00a0was SUCH a NERD.\u00a0 Especially when he would talk about the poinsettia growing operation he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newstayathomemom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2050"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newstayathomemom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newstayathomemom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newstayathomemom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newstayathomemom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2050"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/newstayathomemom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2050\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2062,"href":"https:\/\/newstayathomemom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2050\/revisions\/2062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newstayathomemom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newstayathomemom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newstayathomemom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}