Yuzu is also known for its characteristically strong aroma, and the oil from its skin is marketed as a fragrance. It is used extensively in the flavouring of many snack products, such as Doritos. Yuzu is used to make various sweets including marmalade and cake. It is often used along with sudachi and kabosu. Slivered yuzu rind is used to garnish a savoury, salty egg-pudding dish called chawanmushi, as well as miso soup. It is used to make liquor (such as yuzukomachi, 柚子小町) and wine.
Yuzu kosho (also yuzukosho, literally "yuzu and pepper"), is a spicy Japanese sauce made from green or yellow yuzu zest, green or red chili peppers, and salt. Yuzu is often combined with honey to make yuzu hachimitsu ( 柚子蜂蜜) - a kind of syrup that is used to make yuzu tea ( 柚子茶), or as an ingredient in alcoholic drinks such as the yuzu sour ( 柚子サワー). It is an integral ingredient (along with sudachi, daidai, and other similar citrus fruits) in the citrus-based sauce ponzu, and yuzu vinegar is also produced. The yuzu's flavour is tart and fragrant, closely resembling that of the grapefruit, with overtones of mandarin orange. Though rarely eaten as a fruit, yuzu is a common ingredient in Japanese cuisine, where the aromatic zest (outer rind) as well as juice are used much in the same way that lemons are used in other cuisines. Yuzu's domestic production is about 27,000 tons (2016). ĭangyuja, a Korean citrus fruit from Jeju Island, is often considered a type of yuzu due to its similar shape and flavour, but it is genetically a variety of pomelo. Another variety of yuzu in Japan, with knobby skin, is called shishi yuzu ( 獅子柚子, literally "lion yuzu").
A sweet variety of yuzu known as the yuko, only present in Japan, became severely endangered during the 1970s and 1980s a major attempt has been made to revive this varietal in southern Japan. In Japan, an ornamental version of yuzu called hana yuzu ( 花柚子, 花ゆず) "flower yuzu" is also grown for its flowers rather than its fruit. It is unusual among citrus plants in being relatively frost-hardy, due to its cold-hardy Ichang papeda ancestry, and can be grown in regions with winters as low as −9 ☌ (16 ☏) where more sensitive citrus would not thrive. To shorten duration to fruiting, it may be grafted onto karatachi ( P. It grows slowly, generally requiring 10 years to fruit. It was introduced to Japan and Korea during the Tang dynasty, and is still cultivated there. The yuzu originated and grows wild in central China and Tibet region. Yuzu (left) compared to mandarin orange (right) Yuzu closely resembles sudachi ( Citrus sudachi, a Japanese citrus from Tokushima Prefecture, a yuzu–mandarin orange cross) in many regards, though unlike the sudachi, yuzu eventually ripen to an orange colour and there are subtle differences between the flavours of the fruit. Leaves are notable for a large, leaf-like petiole, resembling those of the related kaffir lime and ichang papeda, and are heavily scented. Yuzu forms an upright shrub or small tree, which commonly has many large thorns. Yuzu fruits, which are very aromatic, typically range between 5.5 cm (2.2 in) and 7.5 cm (3.0 in) in diameter, but can be as large as a regular grapefruit (up to 10 cm (3.9 in) or larger). This fruit looks somewhat like a small grapefruit with an uneven skin, and can be either yellow or green depending on the degree of ripeness.