If you’re lucky enough to get fresh Japanese yuzu citrus fruit, make homemade Yuzu Marmalade! The sweet and tangy fruit preserve is delightful added to toast, hot and cold drinks, baked goods, and savory dishes like teriyaki sauce.
Yuzu is very rare to find outside of Japan as are other Japanese citrus like kabosu and sudachi. So, I was really lucky to have so many fresh yuzu fruit this winter. After making the delicious Yuzu Sorbet, I was able to pick more yuzu from my friends’ trees in their backyard.
This abundance of yuzu in my life made me smile cheek to cheek, but there was one problem. We were leaving for Taiwan in just a few days for two weeks, and I was worried our fresh citrus would spoil. The solution? Make delicious homemade Yuzu Marmalade (柚子のマーマレード). This recipe made amazing marmalade, and I hope you like it as much as my family does!
Table of Contents
Making and Canning Yuzu Marmalade
My biggest challenge was that I had absolutely no experience with canning. I was definitely a bit hesitant, but I had to save my yuzu! I quickly looked up the method of canning and making marmalade. It was pretty straightforward and simple.
Can you guess what was the most difficult part? Cutting and peeling 24 yuzu fruit and slicing the zest into julienned pieces. The peel is thick and you need to press it down to cut. My hands were so sore from slicing even with a sharp knife.
Before that step, I had to squeeze the yuzu juice and collect the seeds. We boil the yuzu seeds in mesh tea bags with the fruit because they release pectin, which helps the jelly form [source].
Ingredients You’ll Need
If you are able to get your hands on this delicious citrus fruit, I hope you can make this recipe! You just need three ingredients:
- fresh yuzu fruit
- sugar — I used granulated cane sugar
- water
How to Make Yuzu Marmalade
- Slice and juice the fresh yuzu. Separate the peel from the membrane. Collect the seeds and add to mesh tea bags or tie in cheesecloth.
- Pre-boil the membranes in a pot with a plenty of water. Drain in a strainer, cool, and chop roughly.
- Cut and pre-boil the yuzu peel. Remove the pith and thinly julienne the peel. Cook in boiling water and drain. Repeat (optional) 2 more times to reduce the bitter taste.
- Calculate the amount of sugar to use. Weigh the peel, membranes, and reserved juice. Add up the combined weight. You’ll need half of this weight in granulated sugar.
- Cook the marmalade ingredients. In a large pot, add the yuzu peel, membranes, reserved juice, sugar, seed packets, and water to cover. Boil, then simmer for 30–40 minutes.
- Sterilize the canning jars and lids (read how or watch a video). Fill with hot marmalade and add the lids and rings.
- Process the jars in a hot water bath. Test the seal after 12 hours.
Ways to Enjoy Yuzu Marmalade
This is definitely one of the world’s greatest marmalades! Here are some way to enjoy this versatile ingredient:
- add it to Japanese milk bread toast along with sweet butter; it’s the perfect breakfast condiment!
- make a hot yuzu tea — just add a dollop to hot water and mix
- add to homemade teriyaki sauce
- make a yuzu chuhai cocktail
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Yuzu Marmalade
Ingredients
- 24 yuzu (including skin, preferably organic; each yuzu size is different. yuzu I used weighs about 2.3-3 oz (65 – 85 g). 6 large yuzu yields about ¼ cup of yuzu juice.)
- sugar (we measure the amount later, about ½ by weight of whole yuzu)
- water
Instructions
- Gather all the ingredients.
- Wash yuzu thoroughly and pat dry with kitchen cloth. With a knife, remove any black spots on the skin and cut yuzu into quarters.
- Remove seeds by hand and squeeze out the juice in a sieve (to catch more seeds), set over a measuring cup (or a bowl). Remove the peel by hands (peel is the entire outer covering of the citrus fruit, including the colored, exterior portion as well as the spongy, white pith beneath them.) and separate the seeds and membranes in separate bowls. See the photo below.
- Wrap the seeds in a cheesecloth and tie with kitchen twine, or pack seeds in mesh tea bags (like this one) and set aside. Why do we keep seeds and use them for cooking? Pectin is released from the cut fruits and seeds during cooking. Simmering the fruit evaporates some of the moisture and concentrates the pectin. Adding sugar and an acid like yuzu juice encourage the pectin to reform as a jelly [Source].
- Put the membranes in a large pot and fill with a plenty of water. Bring it to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes over medium heat. This precooking process is to soften the membranes and remove bitterness.
- Remove from heat and drain in a strainer. Let cool and chop the membranes roughly. Put them in a bowl and set aside.
- While cooking membranes, start removing the pith (the white spongy layer between the fruit and the peel) as it has a very bitter taste. Then cut into thin julienne pieces.
- Put the julienned peel in a large pot and fill it with plenty of water. Bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes over medium heat. Then remove from the heat, drain in a strainer, and set aside. This precooking process is to soften the peel and remove bitterness. If you are not a fan of bitterness taste, you can repeat this process 2 times to further reduce it. I don’t mind, so I did it just once.
- Now it’s time to weigh and figure out the amount of sugar you’ll need. Calculate the total weight of 3 ingredients: the boiled yuzu peel, boiled membranes, and the reserved juice. My 24 yuzu came out as 1,765 grams.
- Then measure granulated sugar so that you have half of the combined weight of 3 ingredients, for me the granulated sugar is 883 g.
- Now combine the boiled yuzu peel and membranes, the reserved juice, and the sugar in a large pot.
- Add enough water to cover and add the bags of seeds in the pot.
- Bring it to a boil and simmer gently over medium heat for 30-40 minutes, stirring to dissolve the sugar, and skin any foam on top.
- When the marmalade is reduced and becomes slightly thick, scoop a tablespoon of marmalade onto a cold plate and let it cool to check the thickness. Marmalade will continue to get thicker as it cools more, so don’t wait till it gets too thick. Remove from the heat and discard the bags of seeds.
- When the marmalade is almost done cooking, it’s time to prepare the jars. Wash the jars, lids, and bands thoroughly in hot soapy water and rinse. Alternatively, you can also use a dishwasher. I used the water bath canning method (click here to read and click here to watch a video) to preserve this yuzu marmalade. Place your empty jars in a large pot, right side up, and completely cover in hot but not boiling water for at least 10 minutes.
- Remove jars and lids from hot water. While the jars are still hot, fill them with warm marmalade. Wipe the rims carefully. Each jar should be filled up to a ¼ inch from the top. Make sure to remove any air bubble in the jars.
- Place the lid onto the rim and seal the jars. Add jars to your canner or large pot with a rack and boil for 10 minutes. Make sure the water covers the jar by at least 1 inch.
- Remove jars and let them sit for 12 hours. After 12 hours, test the lids to make sure they are completely sealed. If they are not sealed, refrigerate and enjoy soon.
To Store
- You can keep the sealed jars in a cool place for up to a year.
Notes
- Cheesecloth (or Japanese tea bags)
- Kitchen twine
- Colander
- 2 large pots
- Kitchen scale
- Canning jars
- Stainless steel tongs
- Spoon
- Wire rack (fits the bottom of the pot)
Disappointing – I picked fresh yuzu this morning & followed the recipe. Boiling both the skin & membrane – then discard the water – removes the flavour altogether. My usual marmalade recipes do not do this. If I make this recipe again I will simply follow my usual marmalade recipe.
Hi Jo, We’re sorry to hear that your yuzu marmalade wasn’t very flavorful.
This is a typical Japanese recipe, and without the process, the bitterness of Japanese Yuzu wouldn’t be reduced. It’s possible that you had a different kind of Yuzu. Thank you for sharing your experiences with us.
thank you! It was delicious!
Hi Becky! We are so happy to hear you enjoyed Nami’s recipe!
Thank you so much for your kind feedback. Happy Baking!
Thank you for the great recipe! My yuzu tree has a bumper crop this year, so I want to try your marmalade recipe. Is it necessary to include the membranes in the recipe? Thanks in advance for your help! 🙂
Hi Mary! Thank you for trying Nami’s recipe!
We recommend using the membranes because they add pectin to the Marmalade.
We hope this helps!🙂