Buddha's Hand, My ass

Dear Saucyman,

What the hell do you do with Buddha’s Hand citrons besides admire them for their spidery circus freak tentacles? So far all I've come up with is cramming them in mason jars full of vodka (which makes for superb mixing after a few weeks of soaking). Can these things be cooked in any way?

--Pithed Off

I like the idea of a Buddha’s Hand (BH) stuffed in a glass jar – that falls somewhere between a prop in Silence of the Lambs and an exhibit at the Mutter Museum. As far as vodka goes - for those without the restraint to wait a few weeks while it infuses or to a lesser extent, do not have access to a BH, the Saucyman staff can testify here that Hangar One* does a great job with infused vodka.

Saucyman is always double sourced for your protection, but this question took a little more fieldwork than usual – books, asking a specialty produce -well, specialist, consulting a soon to be horticulturist and exploring the interwebbie: Sorry information super highway, even scouting the generally more button-down government and academic sites for facts and such, books inevitably seem a more reliable source of information. The consensus opinion is that the BH really isn’t grown for consumption.

Alice Water’s Fruit does have a recipe for Citron and scallops but she most likely calling for the Etrog, which looks like a horned lemon. The BH isn’t the only citron with religious connotations - Etrogs are produced for the autumn Sukkot festival. Jews believe the citron is the fruit is referenced in Leviticus. On a religious note – that makes the citron the only food approved for eating in all of Leviticus. And just in case you think the book of Leviticus is getting all soft, according to University of California – Riverside:

“Trees for this purpose must not be grafted on rootstock like most other citrus; instead, they must be grown on their own roots, from seeds or cuttings; these must be from trees descended from stock known or believed to have never been grafted.”

Religiousocity aside, all this makes the BH akin to a rose - grown for scent and aesthetics. If it seems odd to have something you can pick up in the produce section with no nutritional value, remember iceberg lettuce set a precedent for that long ago. I couldn’t find the exact quote, but I remember reading (memory>more accurate than the web) that the essential oils of oranges are the most valuable part of an orange, worth far more than the juice. The bergamot, the orange – not the aromatic herb, is an inedible orange grown primarily to flavor Earl Gray Tea.

The human beings queried about the BH both quickly recommended alcohol. A few books suggested candying the ‘fingers’ in sugar or syrup, but other than saying you could do that, they didn’t really say what to do after the candying was complete. The internets were alive with the rumor that BH was a featured ingredient on Iron Chef, but none of the citizen journalists recorded how it was used, only that it was on TV. All sources, whether bound & printed, electronic or conversational agree one of the best things to do with the BH is place it on a platter to scent a room, along those lines, Velcroing a BH to a cat could only my only other suggestion.

Photos Mike McGriff


*Hangar One is one of the few distilleries without an annoying flash landing/splash page, thank you. All those graphic intense - take forever to load homepages prove is you have too much money and bandwidth & possibly a relative who too much college.