DIY Lime Cordial

A couple of weeks ago I saw an article from the New York Times Magazine entitled Case Study: Building a Better Mixer. The article was about making homemade lime cordial.

If you're unfamiliar with lime cordial, chances are you'd be most likely to recognize Rose's, which has a unique neon green color that probably fends off the less adventurous. However, it is essentially de rigueur for making a gimlet. In the article, the author explained his inability in trying to find a higher quality lime cordial (i.e.- one not made from high fructose corn syrup) to try to replicate what a gimlet used to be like, back in the good ole days, presumably. After consulting several recipes and doing some experimenting, he finally came up with a recipe that he thought was best and wrote about it.

I'm a fan of gin and I'm a fan of gimlets, so I was intrigued by this premise. So, the week before last, on a Friday evening in which I had nothing to do, I went to the store, picked up some limes, a peeler, and a juicer, and set out to give it a whirl.

The recipe called for 18 limes, which, according to the author, would yield 2.5 cups of lime juice. Upon arriving at the store (Super H Mart, to be precise, where the limes were 10 for $1.00), the limes seemed a little small, so I decided to go with 25 limes. Per the recipe, I peeled and then juiced all 25 limes. I ended up with 4-2/3 cups of juice, just slightly more than the author had anticipated. I didn't view this as a problem, though, and added equal parts sugar, stirred until the sugar dissolved, then added the peels back and left in the refrigerator. The next day, I strained off the peels, poured into some bottles I picked up from World Market, and left it to sit in the refrigerator for another night to, according to the author, "cure" (I think this is inaccurate and would have probably been exactly the same if consumed that day). Here is a bottle of my finished product.

The next day, I added some gin and mixed up a gimlet. It is definitely tasty; certainly on the sweet side, but not cloyingly so, and adding the peels did add some bitterness to balance out the sweetness. On a warm day, I'm pretty sure these things might go down a little too easily, so be warned. It's also pretty versatile as this could probably be added, with triple sec, to some tequila to make quick margarita, or added to vodka to make a vodka gimlet. Even rum could be good.

If I make it again, I will probably go with slightly less sugar (maybe a 1:0.9 juice to sugar ratio, instead of 1:1). Oh, and I probably won't make two liters worth. All in all, it was a really simpleand cheap recipe, and one that could easily be made in an hour or so (not counting time in the fridge). If you like gimlets, I suggest giving this one a try.