r/mildlyinfuriating • u/marcus_dobre_lover • 19h ago

I just wanted a hot dog Mom bought 150 lemons.

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She randomly comes back with a butt load of food items once in a while

Any lemon recipe suggestions

\she’s 44, for people asking her age\.

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916

u/portabuddy2 19h ago

Add the juice and honey to the maserated lemon alcohol and your have polish Cytrynówka is a popular Polish lemon liqueur made with vodka or high-proof spirit, fresh lemon zest, and honey.

I've made both. Italian and polish.

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u/carloscitystudios 18h ago

Makes perfect sense to my American mind, seeing as how Poland is a tropical lemon growing nation

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u/portabuddy2 18h ago

Citrus rarely made it to Poland before like 1800's and when they did it was mostly oranges. And only on Christmas. Any bacia or Gadgi will tell if someone cracks an orange it always reminds them of Christmas.

Lemons where even rarer so when they Arrived you would preserve them as best as you could. Poland is know for their rich honey. Strong spruce, birch and clover honey's are prized.

That mixed with grain alcohol and this strong honey. Then it makes sense. Trying to extend something that is so rare, came so little and passed so quickly.

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u/carloscitystudios 18h ago

Honestly learned something here about human behavior. Thanks a bunch

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u/DoseOfMillenial 11h ago

How we don't currently appreciate the abundance we actually have today?

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u/GallusWrangler 11h ago

Hey, don’t speak for everyone. We grow lots of food on our property and are super appreciative.

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u/Negative_Fruit_1800 17h ago

Believe it or not oranges were not the most common citrus in America when I was growing up in the 70s and 80s. It was a special treat to get them at Christmas. The church would hand out a bag filled with oranges, nuts and hard candy the Sunday before Christmas after nativity ceremonies.

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u/Troutalope1 16h ago

Boxes of oranges from FL and Vidalia onions from GA were also Xmas gifts from family when I was growing up in the Midwest.

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u/Sunstorm84 15h ago

Merry Christmas!

I got you some onions.

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u/Willsagain2 11h ago

To wear on your belt. It's very fashionable.

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u/Sunstorm84 10h ago

The design is very human

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u/rsm6130 11h ago

My mom actually looked forward to Vidalia onions. They’re her favorite.

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u/Pikanyaa 9h ago

Those are tears of joy, right?

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u/Electrical-Act-7170 33m ago

Vidalia onions are the sweet onions grown in a single county in Georgia.

I hate onions, they give me hives. That'd be a sucky Xmas present for me.

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u/ElcidBarrett 16h ago

When I was growing up in the 90s and 00s, my parents always put an orange in my stocking. I never quite got it, but it was apparently quite the treat when they were growing up.

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u/Negative_Fruit_1800 16h ago

We could only get fruit in season back then so getting an orange at Christmas was like the holy grail.

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u/Hiraeth1968 48m ago

Cue the scene in the Godfather of the Don buying fruit.

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u/Serious-Fun7379 0m ago

I swear that, and walnuts in the shell were part of the reason I was so desperate to move to CA from DC. NEVER looked back

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u/SpaceGypsy27 15h ago

elite comment

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u/Hiraeth1968 49m ago

I was born in the late 60s. I remember my parents buying a box of oranges and grapefruit every year and keeping it in our front closet because it was cool in there. Those were the sweetest grapefruit I ever had. I, too, got an orange in the toe of my stocking each year.

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u/70ms 13h ago

That probably depends on where you live - in SoCal there are citrus trees everywhere. Parts of Los Angeles were once orange groves and Sunkist is still headquartered in Valencia. The original Sunkist building is viewable from the freeway in L.A. and it’s always been really cool. My mom’s house had a lemon, juice orange, and navel tree in our small backyard in the 80’s. :)

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u/ER_Support_Plant17 9h ago

Same for most of FL back in the 80’s, not sure about now with that citrus disease killing off so many groves

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u/70ms 7h ago

Apparently the citrus industry in Florida is over because of citrus greening disease. They got it first, and California took steps to try to keep it out, but it just delayed the inevitable and now it’s starting here. I’m worried for my little potted variegated Eureka lemon tree. :(

I read “The Sixth Extinction” a while back, and one of the ways we’ve accelerated it is with the spread of invasive species (citrus greening is spread by an invasive insect).

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u/thedreadedaw 14h ago

What part of America? I bought 10 lb of oranges to feed my kids and we'd pick them off the trees when we went to visit family in California. Plus they've been growing a kabillion oranges if Florida for ages. Didn't you ever see the movie Trading Places or hear Anita Bryant advertising them?

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u/Negative_Fruit_1800 14h ago

Appalachia, rural North Carolina. There was no way we were ever driving to Florida let alone California, the family car was lucky to make it to Church and the grocery store twice a week. I’m more fortunate now, I can buy all the oranges I want.

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u/thenaughtydj 10h ago

Plus one for the frozen concentrated orange juice 😂😂

Apparently Dan Ackroyd is working on a sequel, but that was 2024. Still no news about that one. Imo it should be called Trading 2 Places though.

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u/DigitaIBlack 17h ago

So what was the most common citrus

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u/FuckYouVerizon 17h ago

tomatoes of course.

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u/MechanicalTurkish 16h ago

I love potatoes

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u/Negative_Fruit_1800 16h ago

I said rutabagas

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u/Boring_Intern_6394 16h ago

Limes are native to the Americas. I would guess them?

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u/ER_Support_Plant17 9h ago

Really? Is that the reason Mexican mayonnaise is made with lime juice?

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u/applespicebetter 11h ago

When I was a kid in the 80s in Maine it was still a tradition to get an orange in your Christmas stocking every year!

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u/Dirt-Repulsive 11h ago

Child hood memories get a large orange every Christmas in stocking , no other times…

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u/clutzycook 9h ago

Yes! Mine too! Ours was a paper bag that was about 1/3 peanuts and had a red delicious (yuck) apple, an orange, and usually a Snickers bar or a Hershey bar with a few hard candies thrown in for good measure.

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u/Negative_Fruit_1800 9h ago

The red delicious was the worst. We got Brazil nuts, and walnuts which I thought were amazing.

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u/AnguavonUW 13h ago

They were but not in your area for whatever reason. Most metropolitan statistical areas (a civil engineering term for large cities)and the towns directly adjacent to them, where the bulk (90+%} of the country's population resides, had easy access to oranges. They were more expensive, relatively speaking, then vs now. So that might be part of the reason, too

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u/slleslie161 12h ago

It really depends which region you grew up in.

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u/Realistic-Leave9393 9h ago

I grew up around that same time. We barely had oranges in our house but I always thought it was because we couldn’t afford them. So looked forward to the last day of school before Christmas break because we got a bag with lots of goodies, one apple and one orange. Yum!

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u/CrotalusHorridus 7h ago

Did you grow up in Appalachia?

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u/Negative_Fruit_1800 4h ago

Yes, rural North Carolina. The world seemed a lot smaller then.

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u/emmapeel218 6h ago

My uncle grew up in pretty serious poverty and said that his fondest memory was the year he got an orange for Christmas. It was his only gift and the only orange he had that year--the only fruit that didn't come from whatever they could grow at their house.

This also makes me think of "The Sweet Smell of Christmas" book that has a scratch & sniff orange in the bear's stocking!

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u/_Failer BLACK 16h ago

Wtf is bacia and gadgi?

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u/barmiro 16h ago

I think they meant "babcia" and "dziadzi" (some regional form of "dziadzio" maybe?), but gradually misspelled over the many generations since anyone in their family actually spoke any Polish

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u/MechanicalTurkish 16h ago

Wtf is babcia and dziadzi?

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u/Btkdiva 16h ago

Grandmother and Grandfather

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u/DummyDumDragon 14h ago

I miss the good old days when you could rent a pineapple for parties.

You can't do that anymore.

Seriously, go out and try and rent a pineapple from someone for your next party and they'll just look at you weird and say things like "...what?!" and "fucks wrong with you?!"

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u/portabuddy2 9h ago

That has to be the worst depertiation of any item in history. At the hight of the pineapple craze one would cost somewhere into the 100's of thousands of dollars. Now it's 3/$2

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u/ER_Support_Plant17 9h ago

I love that bit of history. Fruit rentals

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u/porp_crawl 16h ago

Oh! So that's why chocolate oranges (orange foil covered spheres that you break into smaller individually foil covered slices) for Christmas is a thing.

Revelation unlocked.

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u/Infinite-Pin-7240 16h ago

So nasty tho, hate em to this day

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u/LongjumpingDebt9247 11h ago

This is amazing to see how you spell "babcia" and "dziadek" and how automatically I knew who are you talking about when you've said about their experiences with oranges.

I'm in my 30s but from rural area and oranges were still quite rare when I was a kid. They still remind me about Christmas, although I can get them all year round now. But before children would have them in their lunchboxes around December time and in the moment someone opened orange we used to say "it's already smells like Christmas here"

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u/portabuddy2 9h ago

I'm 40 and it was the same for us in the late 80 and early 90's. Much like parts of northamarica, Canada specifically. Poland was very much on ration cards coming out of socialism. So you where allowed x loves of bread, x eggs, x kg of flour. Etc etc. oranges where not on the list. Haha.

My mother got a job at the post office in the late 80's in Poland. So we were allowed a phone! Our own land line. How special. :rolls eyes:

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u/Shadowpriest 10h ago

Yep oranges were a very popular gift to give around the Christmas season from my parents telling me stories of growing up in Hungary. My folks carried on that tradition on December 6 (Mikulás Nap aka St Nick's Day) so our cleaned and polished boots or dress shoes by the door/window that day would have candies, nuts, and oranges.

American kids thought it very strange but that have me a little mini holiday to enjoy some sweet treats and a tasty orange.

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u/DaniekkeOfTheRose 9h ago

Thank you for taking the time to share this. It was very interesting. This is precisely what I like about Reddit and many of its redditors.

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u/Minimum_Chart9946 16h ago

My dad used to say that about oranges!!!!!!!!

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u/J2thaG 15h ago

Hell yeah, thanks for the lesson

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u/4kBeard 13h ago

Did not know Poland was known for it's honey. Now I gotta keep an eye out for it. Birch honey sounds delightful.

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u/portabuddy2 9h ago

The spruce honey is so strong. It's like honey dialed up to 11. Esp the kind from the southern mountains of Poland (tatra mountains) that neighbor Slovakia. It looks like deep dark wood. If you have a polish deli near you, they will carry it. Comes with a snap down lid. I'm sure I have one at the house.

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u/portabuddy2 9h ago

LOL I do. I bought this years ago to back sweeten a mead I made. But never did that. Good thing honey doesn't go bad. LOL it's now $28 :(

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u/Megabyte_Messiah 12h ago

Wow. I always enjoyed chocolate oranges, but never understood why I typically only saw them at Christmas. Is this related to why? I’m in Michigan which has a fairly large Polish community.

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u/portabuddy2 9h ago

This all goes back to the day of travel be wagon, horse and train. Even truck but when they where not that common. In europe the trade routs where solid! But you still had to wait for seasonal items. Some where super expensive and only given out by the church. Some simply put no one could afford. So back then when you got an orange that came the way from italy or even China. That was a thing.

It's like someone bringing you a moon rock today. In the days when distance counted in steps by foot, it's just as Un fathomable how far a moon rock came today. And in 100 years hopefully we will be saying the same for something from the nearest star.

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u/Megabyte_Messiah 4h ago

Half of us will be worried about something from the nearest star while the other half worry about oranges, again, most like 🙃

Thanks for the info!

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u/applespicebetter 11h ago

That sounds absolutely delicious!

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u/Satahe-Shetani 9h ago

I'm sorry, but babcia and WHO? Gadgi? I'm Polish and confused. Or maybe you meant dziadek?

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u/Laurabengle 7h ago

I feel like you know it’s authentic old Polish recipe when it calls for grain alcohol. I can poke fun at Poland because family came from Bohemia and the traditional stuff is very similar!

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u/Away_Amoeba5554 7h ago

Beautiful explanation

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u/Simple-Wrangler-9909 4h ago

That sounds so delicious

Makes me think of like a sweet lemony gin type of drink

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u/IHaveNoEgrets 18h ago

I mean, that's how they came up with this. Someone gave them lemons, and after a brief WTF moment, they just rolled with it and made booze.

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u/emlgsh 16h ago

It's a more recent modification of a traditional Polish spirit recipe involving pure grain alcohol and a bottle.

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u/Jessika_Rarebit 16h ago

I was surprised after visiting a few Western Europe cities to find out how common it is to keep a roughly sapling-size lemon tree in the home. Lots of healthy ones at farmers' markets. They smell amazing too.

I don't know why we don't have the same trend in the U.S., wish we did.

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u/carolomnipresence 17h ago

That's a secret, who told you?

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u/YeshuasBananaHammock 11h ago

Something something silk road!

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u/Lucius-Halthier 9h ago

Hey when life gives you lemons, you make liqueur

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u/Laurabengle 7h ago

Hey even in northern Ohio we can have fresh fruit year round in 2026 :)

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u/discordianofslack 19h ago

That sounds way better than limoncello

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u/portabuddy2 18h ago

It is. It's sour and sweet, it's thicker has an amazing mouth feel.

Because you generally make it with spyrus(95% grain alcohol) your not introducing any flavors other than the base and you proof it down to 35%.

Then you can drink it as an appertif or mix with soda and ice.

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u/miko3456789 17h ago

35% lol. More like 55-65% usually. We usually use ~15 lemons, 750mL bottle of rectified spirit, and the better part of a 750mL of vodka for ingredients

EDIT: It’s not really a mixer either. Shots usually

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u/kranz_ferdinand 8h ago

My wife is Polish and my Polish MIL lives with us. I can vouch for this, both strength and shots

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u/discordianofslack 17h ago

My issue with limoncello is it’s generally just sickeningly sweet.

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u/SweetBabyCheezas 18h ago

It is, and I loved limoncello before even trying cytrynówka

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u/SpaceGypsy27 19h ago

Screenshot to look up later, that sounds right up my alley

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u/Confident-Rice-5206 18h ago

My daughter’s mother in law always makes limoncello. I’d make some preserved lemons if I had a lot.

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u/Confident-Rice-5206 18h ago

What are the differences between the Polish and Italian liqueurs? I know a lot of lemons grow in the region of Italy where limoncello started.

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u/portabuddy2 6h ago

They use a super specific kind of lemon for limonchello. Has a super thick outer oily layer. That's what emulsifies into the alcohol.

The polish version uses the juice of the lemon, some zest and honey instead of white sugar. But I'm sure it's regional in itally also.

The lemons they would have gotten in Poland when this was invented would have been thinner and the zest would have been more bitter.

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u/Confident-Rice-5206 6h ago

I looked up recipes for both and I think I want to try the polish kind since thin skinned lemons are the only kind we get here.
My memory of my daughter’s mother-in-law was that there were always little glasses of limoncello in her freezer waiting. Her father-in-law’s family is from Sicily and the whole family loves all things Sicilian. They do the Feast of 7 fishes before Christmas,(they celebrate the week before Christmas instead of Christmas Eve so everyone can get there), there is always Parmigiano-Reggiano around among many other things. It’s rubbed off on my daughter and granddaughter.

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u/portabuddy2 5h ago

That kind of tradition should rub off on anyone!! Sounds like an absolute blast.

We were never heavy drinker in our family. The grand parents died of alcoholism. So as the kids of their kids are always careful of such things.

I got passed down a recipe book from my mom's grandma. And their are quite a few booze recipies. One for one made from walnuts. I'm thinking those might actually be black walnuts(in the green stage) like the Italian way.

I recently gained the ability to "aquire" high proof alcohol in the 95-97% range so I can make these things. I've tried quite a few of them and they are fantastic. Northern European village specialties.

I'd I wasn't so God dam ugly I'd make a few YouTube videos on the subject. Just so they don't die with me.

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u/dubbzology 17h ago

Krupnik good af too with a few extra spices

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u/No_Bad_4872yy 17h ago

Is that the thing they call 'Polish Wine'?

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u/portabuddy2 6h ago

In Poland they make lots of wines, from plums, gooseberries, cherries.. any fruit.

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u/No_Bad_4872yy 5h ago

Talking more like slivovich, something 60%+ in alcohol

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u/portabuddy2 4h ago

Not distilled. Just wine. But they have a version of that too. It's more sour prune plums boiled to a syrup and added to 95% alcohol to make it tolerable. More of a central Poland treat.

The proper slivovich is made from the plums too! I think that more Lithuanian? And depending on who you ask that's Poland also. Haha..

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u/No_Bad_4872yy 4h ago

Thats exactly it!!! Never knew it was syrup, just something super kurwa they made in their bathtub when i visited haha. Thanks, whats the Polish name for it? Cool its local to central Poland, i feel like an adventure now.

I know slivovich mostly from the Balkans, but i guess each country kinda makes a variant.

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u/Com4734 17h ago

Hmm maybe I’ll try making both of those. I’m polish and Italian

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u/portabuddy2 6h ago

So your inner mason fights with your inner cemento cemento!

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u/thatstwatshesays 15h ago

That sounds so good.

Off to buy 150 lemons, brb 😂

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u/portabuddy2 6h ago

I made a 5gallon batch and it was like 20 lemons.

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u/funfun151 14h ago

This stuff is incredible. I did not know its name. Thank you

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u/AlreadyAway 10h ago

Add more honey, sub the vidka for water, add yeast and yeast nutrient, and you will have lemon mead. Or at least a close approximation. The yeast might stall with the acidity of lemon juice.

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u/GenoCash 8h ago

Do I need to keep the Zest? Or can I make both cello and The Cytrynówka?

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u/portabuddy2 6h ago

The pure polish version has just booze lemon juice and sweetener. Either white sugar or honey.

Personally I infuse the peel in the booze for a week or so(limonchello is more like a day or two) then add 20% lemon juice and nearly equil amounts of honey to bring it to tart but sweet. Then proof it down to about 35%. You have to use the lemon juice in your proofing calculations.

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u/GenoCash 6h ago

Ah, for my cello I use the Zest, for a week. Then simple Syrup it down. Recently got to compare mine to the OG from Italy my dad picked up, theirs was a little bitter. Less sweet and sour

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u/kkillbite Always Infuriated 6h ago

I don't even drink anymore but this sounds GREAT! 😅

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u/portabuddy2 6h ago

Look into advokat.

It's beaten egg yolks mixed with sugar, then toy slowly string it into your alcohol. The original version was made with avacado's

Which sounds like it would be amazing. It was thought to be drank by high society so one theory is it got its name from advokats. Which are lawyers in polish. But if you did deep it goes back to bring ing avacado's back from the new world and like with lemons they decided to add booze. LOL

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u/Northern_TrashPanda 5h ago

Mama robi Crytrynówke!

That was my first thought. My mom usually makes a huge batch at a time. My buddy calls it "the dangerous", tastes so good and goes down like juice but hits you hard!

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u/portabuddy2 5h ago

Yea she is!!! You really do have to make a lot. I'll usually make 24 wine bottles worth at a time. Drink 3 over the course of as many years and give 21 away. LOL

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u/WWGHIAFTC 3h ago

is that at all like lemon + krupnik?