Homemade sweet, tangy and delightful yuzu marmalade. They are amazing in both hot and cold drinks as well as adding a yuzu flavor in your baked goods and savory dishes like teriyaki sauce.
I was really lucky to have so many yuzu for my cooking this winter. After making the delicious Yuzu Sorbet, I was able to pick more yuzu from my friends’ yuzu 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. There was no way to use up all these yuzu before the trip, and by the time we come home from the trip, 2 weeks later, the yuzu won’t be fresh anymore and could spoil. The solution? Make delicious homemade Yuzu Marmalade (柚子のマーマレード).
Making Yuzu Marmalade
My biggest challenge was that I have absolutely no experience with canning before. Time to research and try it for the first time. 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. No problem!
Since I had to make this during the weekday and Mr. JOC was at work, we couldn’t shoot this yuzu marmalade tutorial video (sorry!). I tried my best to take step-by-step pictures myself during this process but missed a few shots. Usually, Mr. JOC takes step-by-step pictures as we shoot videos and I haven’t taken step-by-step pictures by myself for a long time, so pardon me if the quality is not good as usual.
Can you guess what was the most difficult part of this WHOLE process? It was to slice 24 yuzu peel into julienned pieces. I cut each yuzu into quarters. So I had 96 pieces of yuzu rind to julienne. The peel is pretty thick and you need to press it down to cut. My hands were so sore from slicing yuzu peel even with a super sharp knife.
I started in the morning maybe around 9 or 10 am and I think I finished around 4 or 5 pm in the evening, just before the sunset so that I could take pictures of the final product. As I was in and out to pick up my kids from school in between, I couldn’t record accurate prepping and cooking time for the yuzu marmalade recipe and I apologize for that.
Ways to Enjoy Yuzu Marmalade
I’ve been using Yuzu Marmalade for my hot yuzu drink (just add hot water and mix) and Teriyaki Sauce (add the marmalade to the sauce), and Mr. JOC makes Yuzu Chuhai (cocktail) with the marmalade.
Yuzu is very rare to find in the U.S. or outside of Japan, but if you are able to get your hands on this delicious citrus fruit, I hope you can make this yuzu marmalade! After trying canning for the first time, I look forward to trying other recipes in the future. If you don’t plan on canning often at home, you don’t need a canner or pressure cooker at home for canning. You just need a large pot with racks that can go on the bottom so the jars don’t touch the bottom of the pot (for water bath). I hope you like the yuzu marmalade as much as my family does.
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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)
