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)
I use a food processor to coarsely grind the yuzu. I have been making yuzu marmalade for a few years using a Meyer lemon recipe, but thank you for your research and your recipe
Hi Julia! Thank you very much for your kind words!
We hope you have a chance to enjoy Yuzu Marmalade with fresh Yuzu one day! Happy Cooking!
Thank you so much for your amazing website. I wonder if you can give me some advice on a variation. Our son’s mom (who is from Kyoto) uses Okinawa brown sugar in her Yuzu marmalade but her recipe is a “little of this/little of that”. How do you think the ratio would change if I used this type of sugar? Thank you in advance
Hi Marie! Thank you very much for reading Nami’s post and for your kind feedback!
We have never tried this recipe with brown sugar, and we are unsure how much brown sugar will be good. Usually, the brown sugar clumps together. So you might want to add more water for a better texture.
As for the color, it will be a bit darker from molasses.
Hey Nami!
Is it okay to halve your recipe, so using 12 yuzu and follow your recipe from there? I’ve never canned or preserved anything before, so I want to be extra careful about these things.
I was so surprised to find fresh yuzu at the Korean supermarket, but they’re a bit pricey. I ended up just buying a few to try and they’re very fragrant, definitely a bit different than lemons or limes. They don’t have very much juice though.
Thank you!
Hi Jason! Thank you very much for trying Nami’s recipe! 🙂
Sure, you can do that. You might want to use a smaller pot, so it will not be shallow.
We hope this helps!
Thanks for confirming!
Curious, does the yuzu keep its unique flavor and aroma when it’s heated up to such high temperatures to make marmalade? How does the taste compare to fresh yuzu? Did your family enjoy it?
Thanks again!
Hi Jason, We are most welcome!
Yuze flavor and aroma will reduce if you compare this with fresh yuzu, but you still taste plenty of Yuzu flavor in the Marmalade.
Nami’s family and my family love this too.
We hope you will give it a try.😊
A fabulous recipe that I used after a friend had about 90 Yuzu delivered to me out of the blue. All he wanted was the seeds to try and plant. The Yuzu he bought were from Victoria in Australia and unfortunately for him there was only about one seed per fruit. I made Ponzu, Yuzu Jam and Marmalade which is wonderful in all the suggested uses and became particularly fond of the hot Yuzu drink. I also used this same technique to make some Kaffir Lime Marmalade which also turned out wonderfully!
Hi Gregory! Wow! 90 Yuzu! Awesome!🤩
We are so happy to hear Nami’s suggested Yuzu recipes worked very well for you, and you enjoyed them!
Kaffir Lime Marmalade sounds very yummy too!
Amazing step by step guide for making delicious yuzu jam !
Thank you very much 🙂 Enjoying my yuzu tea a lot more now that i know i made everything myself.
Hi Anna, We are glad to hear you enjoyed homemade Marmalade! Thank you very much for trying this recipe and for your kind feedback!
I got some Yuzu from my husband’s aunt (from her garden) during the New Year’s holidays and wasn’t sure what to do with them so I tried your recipe and it is SO NICE ! Perfect !
It was my first time making jam and it turned out beautifully. When it was almost done, I tried it and thought it was a bit too sweet (for my liking) so I put some of the water I had cooked the pulp in (I hadn’t thrown it out, it looked too delicious!), it gave it the tang I wanted and it turned out just perfectly !
I only had 7 Yuzu so I could only make one jar. I wish I had had more ! Next year I’ll ask for some more !
Hi Isabelle! You’re so lucky your husband’s aunt has yuzu trees! I paid $2 for one yuzu from the local Japanese grocery store… I wish I can make this marmalade again. 🙂 Hope you enjoy the delicious homemade yuzu marmalade!
Thanks for the nice recipe. I followed it to a tee until I got to the very end and decided to put in 1/4 cup of honey. Don’t know why, but I did! I’m sure it was just as nice without. I’m no stranger to canning jams and marmalades (I’ve done blueberry jam every year for the past three years and marmalade two years ago) but for the beginner, your instructions are great. I have 5 one-pint jars to store for a year–I hope!
Hi Ginnie! Wonderful! I’m so happy you got to make yuzu marmalade. So many people wish to get yuzu and I’m glad you have enough to make the marmalade! Thank you for your kind feedback!
Thanks Nami. I make yuzu marmalade every year, but this time I tried your recipe and it is so much better than my other efforts. Thanks a lot.
I come from England (although I live in Tokyo) and we never process our jams. In decades I have had only one jar go mouldy.
Hi Elisabeth! I’m so glad you enjoyed my recipe. Thank you for your kind feedback. oxox Happy Holidays!
I’ve been hooked on yuzu ever since I had the pleasure to experience it in Japan two years ago. I have a few pounds shipped up (I live in snowy NE Ohio) from California each winter and this recipe hit the nail on the head for a way to preserve some of that for the year to come. I picked up a pair of hardy drawf yuzu trees, hopefully it’s not too cold for them and I get some fruit in a couple years!
I had no experience with jams/jellies/marmalades OR canning/preserving before and your instructions were concise and clear. I was able to go from start-to-finish in about 3 hours – although I only processed 7 rather large yuzus (they weighed 34oz in total!), or enough for five, 8-oz jars of marmalade. I did find that pre-cooking the peels twice left a noticeable but not overpowering bitterness to the final product – which well suited the wife’s palate as well as my own. Looking forward to trying the yuzu ice cream and sorbet recipes tomorrow! The wife is also excited to try out the strawberry sponge cake recipe as well – it’s her favorite at the Japanese bakery.
Hi Brandon! Thank you so much for your kind feedback. I’m so happy to hear you got to try yuzu in Japan! And you get yuzu shipped to your home in Ohio! May I ask where you get yuzu from? Maybe other readers are interested and I could provide the info to them. I get SO MANY emails about where they can get yuzu…
I’m glad this recipe worked and thanks for trying the recipe. I hope you will enjoy the yuzu ice cream and sorbet, and strawberry shortcake recipe!
Absolutely! I order them in 5-lb quantities from Pearson Ranch, pearsonranch.com. They let you order them in green, yellow-green, or yellow. This year I decided to get yellow-green to see if they’d have a longer shelf life than yellow, but it seems like they are still best used within 3-4 weeks before they start to dry out. They started to turn yellow-green around Halloween this year.
I’m about halfway through my box now; it will be time to order 5 more pounds in a couple weeks! I’ll need a few to replicate the drink we had in Niigata – a glass of iced Calpico with a quarter of a yuzu squeezed into it. I’m also considering using some for a bath on toji.
Hi Brandon! This is REALLY helpful and thanks so much for sharing the info. I hope your yuzu trees will grow nicely in a few years. Keep me posted! Hope you figure out your favorite yuzu drink. I love a bath with yuzu. Enjoy!
Wonderful recipe, Nami. The exciting news for me is that I found fresh yuzu this year in Kansas City. Our local Whole Foods sells them in December, apparently. A friend saw them last year and didn’t bother to tell me! D:
I did the math to make two 8 oz jars (4 yuzu, same size as yours), but since this is my first time I decided to add a 5th yuzu just to be safe. Better to have more than not enough. 5 yuzu was perfect to fill two jars for canning and keep a little extra to enjoy now! (it gave me about 3 or 4 oz extra) Everything turned out so well! It’s really delicious!
Hi Lion! WOW!!!! That’s is super exciting news for me too!!!! Yuzu is coming to the US!!! I think it’s one citrus everyone falls in love when they taste it somewhere (in Japan or wherever). It has such a beautiful fragrance and it would be so awesome if it’s grown everywhere. Congratulations on finding it and making this marmalade!!! YAYYYY!!!
On a completely different topic, an exciting news I want to share is that I get to go to Iowa (close to Omaha) in April for my son’s robotics competition. I think I’m close to Kansas City, isn’t it? I have never been to any middle States between Utah/AZ and Pensylvania on the east. So I am looking forward to it!
Wow! At first I thought “Iowa is kind of far away”. Then I looked at a map and actually if it’s near Omaha, it’s only a 3 hour drive from Kansas City. I had no idea we were this close to Iowa! Hahaha.
The yuzu here are from a farm in California, so they must be the same ones you can find near you there. I’m so excited to see them, as I’ve never gotten to try them fresh before, and because they are still quite unheard of here, it seems I’m the only one buying them (haha, they sure had them fully stocked when I got to the store… I may have bought all the most ripe and good ones). I can’t wait to add yuzu zest to ozoni and namasu (I’ve already been experimenting with it in miso soup and other things). I bought some new canning jars that are little 4 oz jars for jelly, and I made another batch of marmalade to enjoy through the year. Now I have 6 little jars that when I open, I don’t have to worry about finishing a large amount too quickly. So cool. :3 I’m giving some to my mom for her Christmas gift because I can guarantee she’s never tried yuzu before and will love it. Thanks for the great recipe!
Somehow, the competition is in Iowa but it’s near Nebraska so we’re flying to Ohama. I have no geographical sense in the area, so when I pulled up a map (like you did), I saw Kansas City, and I know one person who lives there (you!), so I thought of you. 🙂
Haha, thanks to you buying a lot, maybe the WF thinks there is a growing Yuzu demand in your area! I love yuzu peel in my miso soup too. Ahhh.. happiness.
You can keep the seeds and plant them (which I did, but who knows when we can have a tree. I heard from someone who has yuzu trees now), and bathe in leftover yuzu skin (put in a cloth bag) too… we can’t waste water here in CA, but maybe you can enjoy it. The fragrance is so good.
I hope your mom enjoys it! A little by little, we inspire people to become a yuzu fan. 🙂
I really thought about planting some seeds since I do gardening, but I’m not sure if I can keep the yuzu alive where I live. I might try it. We have very cold winters so it can only live in a pot that would have to come inside during the winter, because our freezing temperatures are too cold here (we get negative temperatures during January and February)… but also I read that citrus must have a cool period or the tree won’t flower and make fruit the next spring… so the problem is finding enough coolness and light in winter without it being outside and freezing. Moving it in and out too often can shock the plant. Maybe I could try to grow it in the garage in winter time. Or… maybe I can build a very small greenhouse in my back yard. We have two tool sheds and I have thought of replacing the roof on one to create a greenhouse instead. Maybe it’s time to try. We’ll see!
Please keep me posted! 🙂
Can I add grated ginger for added flavour, or would that mess it up? Thank you!
Hi Iblis! Sure! Don’t put too much though. You still want to keep the subtle yuzu flavor without strong ginger flavor/fragrance.
Aloha Nami chan!
I’m so happy to see this recipe because I have a small yuzu tree. This year didn’t get too many fruits so I just made yuzu cha. However, when my tree is large enough to bear more fruit, I will definitely make this marmalade!
Hi Kuulei! You have a yuzu tree! Nice! I now have one too, and this is the first year… I don’t think they are ready for fruits yet but I’m excited. Hope you enjoy my marmalade recipe! 🙂
Nami chan, I thought I would have to wait several years but I bought it in the fall and in the spring it flowered! I had about 10 fruits that year!
WOW!!! I’m excited!! 😀
Thanks Nami for such a great recipe! I love Yuzu and bought way too much on a recent trip to Tokyo. Your recipe was easy to follow and my Yuzu marmalade turned out perfectly!
Hi June! Wow you brought back lots of yuzu from Japan! I’m so jealous… 🙂 I’m so happy to hear you made this recipe and it came out well! Thank you for your kind feedback. xo
Hi Nami, I just came across this post and it looks so beautiful! I live in the San Francisco Bay Area and have never seen yuzu. Any suggestions on where I can find some and what season are they available? Thank you!
Hi Lea! Yes! Go to Nijiya in Japan Town. I go to Nijiya and Suruki in San Mateo and they always have it when it’s in season. I don’t think they are out yet. Definitely soon! 🙂
What a pretty marmalade! I always wonder how is the taste of yuzu so i hope someday i can try it as well.
Thanks for the hard work. This is well made. ^^
Hi Flo! Thank you so much! Yuzu is so delicious! I hope you get to taste it one day… 🙂
What an endeavor! I can only imagine the motivation it took throughout the whole process. I hope this means that you get to enjoy the yuzu for the next several months. =) Thanks for making this an informative post on canning as well—it was a very interesting read for someone like me who is unfamiliar with the process.
Thank you Kimmi! I have some blogger friends who make preserves all the time but I was too lazy to give it a try. Sometimes I had to be forced to try something new. 😉