In dishes, cocktails or desserts: the Asian citrus fruit is being used more and more frequently as an ingredient. Time to take a closer look at the yuzu.
If you stroll past the fruit stalls at markets around the world, citrus fruits shimmer in rich yellow and orange. Lemons, oranges, mandarins or grapefruits; with their individual flavour profiles they have already become established on the worlds markets, so to speak.
However, yuzu is still rather rare. Even though it is becoming increasingly popular in the gastronomy sector.
Yuzu ice cream, yuzu spritz or yuzu espresso tonic; if you scan the menus of restaurants and bars in major German cities, you will notice that the Japanese citrus fruit with the yellow, wrinkly peel is all the rage.
Even German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has already been served the trendy fruit.
One reason for this is its complex flavour. Yuzu not only tastes sour and fresh, in a similar way to lemons, but also has sweet and slightly bitter notes. And the fact that, unlike lemons, yuzu is not a mass-produced fruit in our part of the world makes it particularly interesting.
This is perhaps why yuzu has long been known in fine gastronomy. According to a report in a german newspaper, Michelin-starred chef Jörg Sackmann served Chancellor Scholz loup de mer in March, which included yuzu. What is new is that yuzu is increasingly finding its way into kitchens that are not adorned with stars. For example, in the Ciao Chang in Munich. A restaurant that is known for its Bavarian-Japanese fusion cuisine.
They are currently serving fried chicken with massaman potatoes and yuzu sour cream. And the fresh flavours of the citrus fruit can also be found in a yuzu cheesecake mousse for dessert.
It takes around 10 kilogrammes of yuzu to make 1.5 litres of yuzu juice.
“We often use yuzu as a citrus substitute to give it that Asian twist,” says Daniel Wäcker. He is the managing director and head chef at Ciao Chang. Does he see yuzu as a trend product in gastronomy? Yes, he says: “Japanese products in general, whether it's miso or yuzu.”
For Wäcker, the special thing about the citrus fruit is that it doesn't have the one-dimensional acidity of lemons. It tastes a bit like mandarin, has something tart, similar to grapefruit, but also a hint of citric acid. This aromatic variety fits in with their concept, and is the reason why Wäcker prefers yuzu to lemon.
Even if the yuzu may trump the lemon in terms of taste, it has not yet managed to do so in terms of regionality. This is because yuzu is mainly imported from Japan. There are only a few plantations in Europe. But they do exist. One of them is located in Spain and belongs to Norbert Scharrer. In addition to the plants and trees, he also sells yuzu fruits and their juice.
“It takes a lot of yuzu to get one litre of juice,” says Scharrer. That's why the citrus fruit is so valuable and expensive. He needs around 10 kilogrammes of yuzu for 1.5 litres. The price of a bottle starts at 70 euros for Scharrer.
Fresh yuzu therefore means high costs and low yields. It is therefore hardly surprising that Daniel Wäcker from Ciao Chang hardly ever uses fresh produce in his kitchen. Instead, he uses dried peel, jelly, puree or liqueur, he explains. As long as the intense flavour is retained, this is probably a compromise that people are happy to make.
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