Buddha's Hand citron

Having recently returned from a trip to Southern Italy, it was inevitable that I'm making liqueurs. You know I have the alloro -- bay leaf -- one already rolling, but the other half of the bottle of Everclear was singing sweet limoncello nothings in my ear. I could not find any Sorrento lemons in any market but I did find Buddha's Hand citron, which is said to have remarkable flavor.

So, I'm on it:

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I added the peel of one regular lemon, just to make sure there's enough lemony oomph in there. Remember, I still have to dilute this down to 30-40 proof with simple syrup.

I kept the inner fingers and the now-peeled outer fingers to make candy:

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Plain sugar on the left, sugar mixed with a dash of allspice on the right.

I'm scrounging around the kitchen for small jars now.

[Jenise]

Appreciated the photos of your process. And, btw, I've never seen the inside of a Buddhas Hand. Didn't realize they were all pith but, d'oh, how could it be otherwise. I think I kind of just presumed their use is primarily ornamental. But something like liqueurs also makes sense--that zest is valuable.

Indeed, their primary use is during Tet as part of ancestor worship offerings. They are valued both for their appearance and fragrance.

The primary culinary use is for candying.

Anyway, tonight I made the simple syrup to finish up both the citron-cello and the alloro. It's cooling now. Yipes, what a lot of sugar that takes: I made 3 c simple syrup for each one, which needed 6 c sugar, which is approximately 3 lbs!

Pumpkin now refers to me as "Dr. Jekyll" because I am busily pouring libation components around. I decided to start conservatively so I've taken a portion of each liqueur base and mixed it 2:1 with a simple syrup made of 1:1 sugar and water:

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Plus there are 5-1/3 cups of leftover (or, as yet unused) simple syrup so I have two more jars filled with that.
Here's another pic, with a cell phone light shining through the very dark bay leaf liqueur base:

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A couple quick sips suggest I have the strength right but we'll see after they've had a few days to mingle.
The alloro definitely smells like medicine, or maybe mouthwash, at this point.
The citron-cello definitely smells like a lemon drink.

I saw Buddha's Hand in person for the first time. It was for sale at the local Whole Paycheck.

-Paul W.

Not certain whether I've given any updates on the liquori so here goes:
After waiting a bit for my 1:2 blend to harmonize, I decided it was a little strong but also already sweet enough. I consulted a cocktails friend and she recommended using plain water to bring it to 1:1:1. (Meaning, equal parts liqueur base, simple syrup, and water.)

I did that to a small amount, waited a few weeks, and tried it again. Much better. Another couple weeks... still good. Yesterday, did a taste-comparison against some professionally-made limoncello... a fair compare! The strength, the bitterness, the zip were equivalent. The limoncello, made from Positano lemons, was more floral but the Buddha's Hand cello offered a whole different range of aromatics. I have now mixed the whole batch to 1:1:1. Yield of 41 oz, out of a starting 48 oz.

Now that Little Jeffrey's Chemistry Kit has been all washed and cleaned, I have re-mixed a portion of the 1:2 alloro down to 1:1:1, and, again, waiting a week or two to try it.
--

Yeah, this whole thing takes a lot of calendar time, but not a lot of clock time. Also, now that I have a better idea of what I can achieve I think I can mix towards it more swiftly.

And the finale: The alloro required a little more water than the citroncello. Mixed down to 1:1:1.5 (equal parts liqueur base and simple syrup, with 1.5x the amount of plain water), it was more floral, less bitter, and not overmatched by the syrup. I reached for more so I knew I was done.

Yield of 40 oz. Chemistry set all washed up, though I have a leftover pint of simple syrup.

This whole liqueur-making process took a long time because I did not have workable proportions for the final blend. When I do this again, I can pretty much go directly from the end of steeping to the final mix in an hour.

But it has been a success, as I am happy to drink the final products!