Buddhacello Batch 2018

When Little Z and I went to the fancy grocery store to look for kumquats, blood oranges and other fruit for the Holiday Dessert Party in December, we only found raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, and pomegranate seeds. But then tucked away with the citrus fruit, I found several Buddha Hands. Since those are ultra seasonal – they only show up around Christmas – I picked the best one and added it to our basket. Little Z had never seen a Buddha Hand in the flesh before, so she had to touch it and sniff it and love it. But she knew exactly what was going to happen to that Buddha Hand: Buddhacello!

What is a Buddha Hand?

The most interesting physical description of the Buddha Hand that I’ve read was in a Smithsonian Magazine article, which described the Buddha Hand as “the Edward Scissorhands of the citrus family.” That’s EXACTLY what it looks like: a lumpy yellow citrus bulb with a dozen or so scrawny fingers reaching out from it. The fruit itself is all peel and pith, with almost no flesh or seeds inside. But it has an amazing light citrusy floral aroma, which is why it is prized in Asia.

The Birth of Buddhacello

I think it was 2009 when I first discovered Buddha Hand at the fancy grocery store. I remember it was a few weeks before a giant Chinese New Year dinner at my parents’ house. We met for lunch at the main art museum in the capitol city to do a hand off of a few things they asked me to find for them at the fancy grocery store (they didn’t have one near them at the time). I was so enthralled by the Buddha Hand that I bought two – one for each of us – without really any idea of what to do with it. We had an interesting conversation about some ideas for it, but mainly discussed the Chinese New Year feast that was about to occur.

When I got home, I got online to Chowhound and queried “What to do with Buddha Hand?” The two ideas were to make an orange marmalade style preserve and to make a limoncello style liqueur. Since I had never made preserves before, I was very intimidated by the first option, which also seemed like a phenomenal amount of work. So I dug deeper into the second option, which seemed like less work and a more enjoyable end product. After reading through the entire thread of comments and making some of my own adaptations, the first batch of Buddhacello was born!

Buddhacello 2018

Little Z was so excited about the prospect of Buddhacello that she wanted me to start it as soon as possible so that I could bring some out when I traveled westward to visit her and her parents later in December. There were two problems with that: I didn’t have any grain alcohol on hand to start the project, and the steeping time was a minimum two weeks.

Acquiring the grain alcohol was very simple. I knew my small local liquor store carried it, and exactly where in the store they stocked it. Unless the product was out of stock, it should be a very straightforward in and out trip. Fortunately, the bottle was right where it always is. Of course, since the store manager recognized me as the one who made unusual purchases and special orders, he asked me what I was going to make with it. So, we had a very pleasant conversation about the Buddhacello project being a limoncello style liqueur made with Buddha Hand fruit, until another customer needed his assistance.

Of course, I read the recipe when I got home with the grain alcohol and was a bit daunted by the need to grate the zest from my gnarly Buddha Hand. But then I saw the note about the November 2015 batch, in which I just put in the whole Buddha Hand and extended the soaking time. Given that it was a day or two before I was headed to my parents’ house for the family Christmas, the later route seemed the one to take. So I dropped the Buddha Hand into my pitcher and poured in the grain alcohol. There were quite a few fingers sticking out of the alcohol. Therefore, I did the only logical thing: I grabbed a knife, cut off the offending limbs, and dropped the dismembered parts back into the pitcher. Once everything was submerged, then I set the pitcher in its cool forgettable place to steep for about a month.

Three weeks later, I checked the Buddhacello infusion, and it looked like it was the right color for mixing with the sugar syrup. The smell still burned in my nose because of the pungency of the grain alcohol, but I was hoping that would mellow once the sugar syrup was added. However, my recipe notes said that I used a two-month soaking time the last time I used the whole fruit. But I may have used vodka instead of grain alcohol for that batch. Vodka is about half the proof of grain alcohol and, therefore, absorbs flavors more slowly.

The use of grain alcohol instead of vodka wouldn’t necessarily result in a significantly higher proof end product. The original recipe was 2 cups sugar and 2½ cups water to make the sugar syrup for 750 ml 100 proof vodka. Since I used 750ml 190 proof grain alcohol, I planned on making my sugar syrup from 5 cups sugar and 5 cups water. I was then going to add approximately two-thirds of the sugar syrup to the infused alcohol and then taste it to see how much more I need to add. If you look at the numbers, 190 proof is almost double 100 proof, so I should probably start with almost all of the sugar syrup. Since I felt I had a valid concern about oversweetening the liqueur, I planned on starting low and working my way up to the right level of sweetness.

With that plan in mind, I simmered together 5 cups of sugar and 5 cups of water, which you would think would make 10 cups of sugar syrup. But I followed the directions in my recipe and let the syrup simmer for an hour. So it made just over 6 cups of sugar syrup. When I saw how much sugar syrup there was relative to how much infused liquor there was, I scrapped my original plan. Since the infused alcohol was in a plastic pitcher with 250ml markings on the side, I decided to just add enough sugar syrup to move the liquid from the 750 ml line to the 1.5 liter line. I figured doubling the volume of liquid would cut the proof from an unsafe 190 proof down to a more palatable 95 proof. I stirred vigorously, but when I took a small sample, it still tasted like grain alcohol. So I added more sugar syrup to bump it up to the 1.75 liter line. That seemed to do the trick. It was sweet, citrusy, floral, with just a hint of alcoholic burn from the grain alcohol base. So I added the leftover sugar syrup to the bottle of sugar syrup in the refrigerator, which gets used for cocktails, tea and coffee. Then I set the pitcher of Buddhacello in the refrigerator to settle overnight before I bottled it.

The following afternoon, I double-checked the liqueur by pouring a full ¼ ounce into a shot glass rather than just taking a few sips from a spoon. Unfortunately, I had given away all of the January 2016 bottling, so I had nothing to compare it to. Then I realized that I had a bottle of a locally distilled organic limoncello hidden in my fabulous liquor cabinet. So I pulled it out and poured a full ½ ounce into another shot glass. I smelled the commercial limoncello, and then I tasted it. There was a bit of an alcoholic smell, and somewhat of an alcoholic bite to it. But it was only 51.2 proof, according to the label. I smelled my Buddhacello: it was a lovely floral citrus scent with no overtones of alcohol. I smelled the commercial limoncello again, and went back to smelling my Buddhacello. My liqueur definitely smelled right. Then I tasted my Buddhacello; there was a bit of an alcoholic bite, but not anything obnoxious. So I sniffed and tasted the commercial limoncello. My Buddhacello seemed to be right on par with it, if not a touch sweeter and smoother. I was happy enough with that, so I proceeded to pour it into sterilized labeled jars, which will be stowed in a cool dark place for two weeks prior to opening. Or until I see Little Z, Mama Z, and the married couple again at the end of January.

The Verdict

This batch of Buddhacello was super easy to pull together because of the short cuts I took: using the whole fruit instead of zesting and grating the peel and using grain alcohol to speed the infusion time. The tricky parts were making sufficient sugar syrup and adding enough sugar syrup to reduce the overall proof and to make the liqueur palatable. Although the final true result of the experiment is about two weeks away, I’m fairly confident it will be a good one.

The Recipe

Buddhacello
I looked up “What to do with Buddha Hand?” on Chowhound and found this idea to adapt to my own evil devices.

1 medium sized Buddha Hand citrus fruit (look in Whole Foods around January)
1-2 thumb sized pieces of fresh ginger, peeled, thinly sliced and quartered (optional)
1.75 liter bottle of 100-proof vodka
5 cups sugar
5 cups water

1. Finely grate the peel from half the Buddha Hand citrus fruit (should be at least ½ cup finely grated peel). Try not to grate in the pith, but it’s not bitter so it’s okay if you do.
2. Strip the peel from the remainder of the fruit in long strips with a sharp knife. It is okay to get some pith with the fruit. It is also okay to toss in some full fingers.
3. Put grated peel, strips of peel, ginger (optional) and vodka in a glass container, cover tightly, and set in a cold dark place for about two weeks. Shake occasionally.
4. When time is up, make a syrup using the sugar and water. Mix sugar and water in a medium sauce pan, bring to a boil, and slowly boil for about an hour.
5. Strain solids out of vodka using a fine mesh strainer. Press hard to get as much liquid as possible from the solids.
6. Strain again slowly through a double layer of coffee filters. Replace and throw away the filters if they get clogged. Be sure to force out as much liquid as possible.
7. Add about half the sugar syrup to the infused vodka, taste, and keep adding until it tastes sweet enough. (I used it all)
8. Pour into clean final glass containers and set aside in a cool dark place for at least another two weeks.

• It is okay to put the entire Buddha Hand in the vodka instead of grating and stripping the peel from the fruit. Just extend the soaking time from two weeks to two months. I tried that in November 2015, and came out with a stellar batch of Buddhacello in January 2016.
• The original recipe was ¼ cup grated citrus peel, 750ml 100-proof vodka, 2 cups sugar and 2½ cups water.
• Other “limoncello only” discussion threads on Chowhound recommend grain alcohol instead of 100-proof vodka.