Yuzu harvest, what shall I make?

Got a nice harvest from our yuzu trees this year.   What shall I make with it all?

Mmm... Yuzu bars or yuzu shortbread cookies.

That would be my initial vote!

I saw a recipe for a pie that looked interesting.

Btw, is the yuzu tree in the ground or you have a green house for it?
I grow one yuzu from seed this year and plan on grafting to a hardier flying dragon orange later on.
How old is your tree to start producing? Do you have a picture of it?

May Lotito wrote:Btw, is the yuzu tree in the ground or you have a green house for it?
I grow one yuzu from seed this year and plan on grafting to a hardier flying dragon orange later on.
How old is your tree to start producing? Do you have a picture of it?

Pots outside the front door.

They don't do well sheltered.  We tried it and almost lost them.

this is what the trees look like:



Not the most pretty trees, but they are prolific.  

still have a lot of fruit left and are looking for more recipe ideas.  

Candied peel and marmalade would be tops on my lists. We can go through tons of both over a year.

The Wikipedia listing for Yuza mentions that it is tradition in Korea to do winter baths with the fruit scenting the water. Seems like a nice thing to try!

I'd be tempted to try some variants of the Japanese drinks and sauces as well, if I had lots to experiment with.

I come across this video, it covers everything about yuzu from grafting, caring and fruit uses.

Bumper crop this year.

It looks like the trick is to have good drainage and water with at least a gallon of muddy duck and goose water each day.  There seems to be something in the muck the trees love and the geese really like this ritual and made me do it twice a day in hot weather.

Now I'm desperate for recipes.

This is so exciting! We are waiting on our young tree to fruit one day. While I haven't made any recipes yet, I took note for 2 recipes from the Japanese Farm Food cookbook by Nancy Hachisu. One was for yuzu kosho made from yuzu zest, salt, and chilies. Other one was for citrus vinaigrette made of yuzu juice, salt, and good quality rapeseed oil (1:1 ratio of citrus to oil).

I've been musing about some sort of candy or sweet I could give as Holiday gifts.  Have yet to find a good recipe yet.

How would you describe the taste? If it's all like orange/grapefruity taste, he'd be vying for marmalade.

I'm pretty sure I have a muffin recipe somewhere that calls for orange juice - but I doubt it would use up more than a single fruit!

a recipe author I trust has a marmelade recipe posted.
https://www.justonecookbook.com/yuzu-marmalade/

I've always used it zested and mixed with miso or other things, never the fruit and juice, but it seems with all the seeds and pith it should make a nice marmelade.

Making Korean yuzu marmalade and tea yuja cheong/yuja cha:

https://mykoreankitchen.com/yuja-tea-korean-citron-tea/

May Lotito wrote:tea yuja cheong/yuja cha:
https://mykoreankitchen.com/yuja-tea-korean-citron-tea/

I make this out of yellow lemons when they appear briefly here (my other options, with lime, are way too bitter) and it is AMAZING. It is the taste of winter for us. Instant hot lemon tea, ready in a few weeks (I keep mine in the fridge, and it never lasts more than a few weeks). Everyone I've ever gifted it to has been thrilled.

r ranson wrote:I've been musing about some sort of candy or sweet I could give as Holiday gifts.  Have yet to find a good recipe yet.

You could candy the peel and still use the rest of the fruit for other products. This recipe uses freezing rather than boiling to soften the fruit and may be worth a try.

I wonder whether Yuzu would like Skye? Maybe in the tunnel where it is warmer in summer.

I think it would sky climate, so long as it can be moved indoors if it's going to be below freezing for more than a week.

It's not as sensitive to day length as most plants I try to grow.

I had a good harvest of sudachi about a month ago. obviously not the same as yuzu, but yuzu would work just as well or better. I don’t think I made the best use of them because I was too busy, but I  was happy with the results anyway.

marmalade. not the most inspiring idea in the world, but it’s easy and it did turn out very tasty.

quince paste. I sometimes add citrus juice and peels, so I tried a batch with sudachi. it’s great.

cocktails. not much more to say about that.


haven’t tried but plan to: zest and salt, ponzu.

haven’t tried and probably won’t in the near future: daifuku.

The yuzu tea recipe looks like a Vietnamese recipe we prepare here - we add a little fresh ginger to the lemon and honey mix.
I have also planted a yuzu tree and a finger lime in my east-looking front garden, we only seldom get hard frosts now.

These are very nasty spiny little fellows ... finger lime looks (and felt !) like a little urchin, and the yuzu has 2-inch spines you could easily confuse with little branches. Slugs seem to like young lime leaves, I do not know for the yuzu yet.

Have a nice evening,

Color me very jealous of your fresh yuzu source! I’ve had to buy the juice for some of my recipes and it’s prohibitively expensive here (but the flavour is sooo incredible!!)

I’m a big fan of making lemon butter cookies with yuzu juice instead! And pound cake 💕 Candied yuzu peel is also lovely either as a treat or added into other baking, and ofc a yuzu syrup is delicious as a topping for pancakes or cheesecake! (I like to make it a bit thicker than classic maple syrup, and sometimes find extra powdered sugar helpful for taste too)

Most of my recipes are just eyeballed/by feel, but in my experience yuzu works pretty reliably as an exact substitute for lemon in recipes, just with the more exciting flavour! :3

Oh, the peel or juice are both also good in tea 🍵 ☺️ Marmalade/jam seems like a great way to preserve your crop for additions to various recipes later on—I could see it working well for a few of the things I’ve mentioned above, and more (yuzu jam rubbed chicken?? Yum!!)

Preserved yuzu fruit the same way that preserved lemons are done!
Commonly used in meat dishes!
Suuuper delicious and nothing like fresh citrus…

Here’s one recipe:
https://ottolenghi.co.uk/pages/recipes/preserved-lemons

I regularly replace virtually any citrus with yuzu juice. It has a fruitier aroma and flavor than lemon -- less acidic, or tart too. I buy it exclusively to lemons and lines these days. I've made a passable Yuzu tart and pie with it.  I've used it as a meat tenderizer too. I make a quality lemonade-like drink with it and I also like a pop of it in club soda or seltzer water. I like it heaps better than orange or grapefruit too. There's another Japanese citrus fruit mentioned in this thread Sudachi, I think.  It's similar, but for me the bang for your busk is with Yuzu, because the fruit is much larger.  

You are so LUCKY.

I once tasted this as a salad dressing at a family dinner
and it has an unusual and exceptional taste.

My niece-in-law brought it from Singapore.

I have been looking for this ever since.         No joy.

None of the supermarkets. None of the Oriental specialty
shops like Don Don Donki stock this. You can get Miso paste
and the like but not Yuzu.

3-minute sauce and variations.

DIY or find someone who can make and ,market this sauce.

Sample YT video:







Bon Appetit.

Most anything that requires sugar; me thinks. I've messed around with Yuzu, and it's timely. (never seen any numbers, but it sure tastes like it keeps the cold season at bay) I grew it some, a few gardens ago. It makes me want to put on my best Japanese accent. (Ahhhh! YUZU!!) I remember making a juice concentrate that kept in the fridge for months. A spoonful was good enough to banish any sore throat that was getting uppity. And I remember making a nice merang with it.

Chile con papas fritas me encanta! No idea why, but I surprised my parents by taking to chiles from early on.