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Sauces and condiments from Kyushu, Japan

Yuzukoshō (柚子胡椒, salted yuzu peel and chilli paste)柚子胡椒

Yuzukoshō is a Kyushu paste of yuzu peel, chilli and salt; koshō means chilli in Kyushu dialects. In a home recipe from the food advisor Yoshie Kamiya, green yuzu peel and green chilli are each ground with 16–18 % of their weight in salt, pounded together in a mortar and then frozen or kept in the fridge. It is a boundary entry, a salt cure rather than a proven ferment: Wikipedia calls it fermented, but the other sources read here describe only a salt cure and none describes a microbial fermentation, and the paste is at its brightest within about 3 hours of making.

Fully documentedSauces and condiments

Recipe

Yuzukoshō (柚子胡椒, salted yuzu peel and chilli paste), a photo from Wikimedia Commons
Photo: njt, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Amounts from a sourceHome recipe from Kamiya (2021) for the peel of 5 yuzu, with salt measured as 16–20 % of the weighed peel and of the weighed chilli; the food advisor Yoshie Kamiya gives about 5 yuzu and 5 chillies with 16–18 % salt in a 2021 macaroni feature. A second web recipe (HugKum) uses 100 g peel, 100 g chilli and 40 g salt, 20 % of the combined weight. The MAFF sheet for Fukuoka (recipe from Nakamura Gakuen University) uses 150 g green chilli and the peel of 10 yuzu, about 100 g; its printed salt amount of 1.5 g is far below the other recipes and is not used here.
Yuzu peelPeel of 5 yuzu, about 200 gWashed and wiped dry, peeled thick, down to the flesh (white pith included), and weighed[kamiya2021][macaroni2021]
Green chilli60–80 g (about 5 chillies)Stem removed, halved lengthways, seeds removed, white pith kept; adjust for heat[kamiya2021][macaroni2021]
SaltAbout 40 g16–20 % of the peel weight and of the chilli weight (16–18 % in the macaroni feature); peel and chilli are each weighed and salted separately[kamiya2021][macaroni2021]
Start
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What changes: Yuzu peel is cut away thick and the chillies are split and seeded

Step 1 of 4
Peel the yuzu and seed the chillies
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

Kamiya picks downward-fruiting chillies that are not as hot as takanotsume, so that they can be bitten. Output: weighed yuzu peel and seeded chillies.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Yuzukoshō is a Kyushu paste of yuzu peel, chilli and salt; koshō means chilli in Kyushu dialects. In a home recipe from the food advisor Yoshie Kamiya, green yuzu peel and green chilli are each ground with 16–18 % of their weight in salt, pounded together in a mortar and then frozen or kept in the fridge. It is a boundary entry, a salt cure rather than a proven ferment: Wikipedia calls it fermented, but the other sources read here describe only a salt cure and none describes a microbial fermentation, and the paste is at its brightest within about 3 hours of making. Salt is 16–20 % (Kamiya Y. 2021).

Key numbers
Salt16–20 %Reported[kamiya2021][macaroni2021][hugkum][maff-fukuoka]Grind each with salt

What makes this one different

Yuzukoshō is a raw salted paste of only yuzu peel, chilli and salt, eaten fresh or kept cold or frozen, and its flavour changes as it sits.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Red-chilli yuzukoshōSome versions use red chillies and give an orange paste (Wikipedia). MAFF says green chillies are usually hotter and red ones more fragrant.
  • Tankan koshōA similar paste made with tankan, a more orange-like citrus (Wikipedia).

Safety

Kamiya says that below 15 % salt the paste dries out and loses colour, which makes it unfit for storage; she suggests 16–20 % (16–18 % in the macaroni feature) for home making and freezing for long keeping, and notes some commercial pastes are above 20 %. Sea salt with less sodium chloride needs a higher amount (Kamiya).

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

Discover Japan places the origin at Hita in Ōita, near the former Amagase town, and says households had long made it. MAFF says the place of origin is disputed and that one account links it to Mount Hiko in Fukuoka, where mountain ascetics (yamabushi) used the yuzu there as medicine. Wikipedia adds Soeda in Fukuoka and a garden on Mount Hiko where the yamabushi first made it. Kamiya, who comes from Usa in Ōita, says it came from not wasting the green fruit thinned in September. It spread after it was sold as a souvenir at Yufuin Onsen and after the Kyushu soy sauce maker Fundokin began making it (Wikipedia).

Starter
The sources we found do not say how its fermentation begins.
Microbes
No study we found names its microbes.
  1. [kamiya2021] Kamiya Y. 2021, Yuzugosho, yuzu peel and chili pepper paste (ゆずごしょう), Journal of Cookery Science of Japan 54(4):201–205, doi:10.11402/cookeryscience.54.201paper
  2. [macaroni2021] macaroni (editors), 2021, 「青い柚子胡椒」の作り方 (How to make green yuzu kosho), 神谷よしえさんの12カ月の手仕事 #3, interview with Yoshie Kamiya, food advisor, macaro-ni.jp, updated 4 September 2021web
  3. [hugkum] HugKum (Shogakukan), 柚子胡椒で作る2種の和風ペペロンチーノ (includes a home recipe for yuzu kosho)web
  4. [maff-fukuoka] Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (Japan), うちの郷土料理: ゆずごしょう 福岡県 (recipe from the Faculty of Nutritional Sciences, Nakamura Gakuen University)gov
  5. [s2] Discover Japan 2020, 柚子胡椒 (origin near the former Amagase town, Hita; yuzu peel, green chilli and salt), 16 April 2020web
  6. [wp] Wikipedia, Yuzu koshōwiki