Maruyubeshi ｜ Traditional Foods in Japan

IshikawaMaruyubeshi

Classification (Large)

Others

Classification (Small)

Japanese sweets

Main ingredients used

yuzu, glutinous rice flour, sugar, soy sauce

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Region of inheritance

Wajima City

Product overview (special characteristics and types)

Maruyubeshi (round yubeshi) is a Japanese sweet created by hollowing out the insides of yuzu citrus fruits and stuffing them with flavored glutinous rice flour. The surface is an amber color, and it has a refreshing yuzu fragrance, elegant sweetness, and a slight bitterness characteristic of yuzu. As this confectionary uses seasonal yuzu harvested in the fall, many stores only produce it once a year. It is enjoyed as a snack with tea or appetizer with alcoholic beverages, and is used in dishes such as steamed egg custard or clear soups.

History and culture

It is said that maruyubeshi originated as a preserved and portable food during the Genpei period. A primitive form of maruyubeshi appears in an ancient text from the Muromachi period, and at the time, it apparently had a salty taste. In the Edo period, Dennai Funaki, the head chef of the Maeda family of the Kaga domain, his son Chozaemon Yasunobu, the cook for the 10th lord of the Kaga Domain, Maeda Shigemichi, and head chef for the 11th chieftain of the clan, Maeda Harunaga, along with Tameyoshi Kojima, who served the Kaga Maeda clan at the end of the Edo period as a cook, left different methods to create yubeshi in many of their cookbooks. In these books, maruyubeshi was written as [柚厭 (yubeshi)] and manufactured just like modern-day yubeshi using the shape of the yuzu fruit. Yubeshi during this time was considered a luxury confectionary and was used as a sweet for offerings. As maruyubeshi has a long shelf life, it is said to have spread throughout Japan as a food on the go for merchants of Wajima lacquerware who visited their clients across the country and as gifts for their clients. When their maruyubeshi hardened with time, it is said that these Wajima lacquerware merchants would re-steam or roast them to soften them before serving these sweets to their clients.

Production method

To start, the meat of yuzu fruits is spooned out by hand using bamboo spatulas. The insides are removed until the outer skin is thin enough for light to permeate. This yuzu container is called a yugama, which is then steamed. A very sticky mochidane created from ingredients such as glutinous rice flour, sugar, soy sauce, and yuzu peel is stuffed into the yugama, which is covered with a lid and steamed multiple times. Some stores will steam these again after drying naturally for approximately six months to create an amber-colored, lustrous yubeshi. It can be stored at room temperature for approximately 30 days after manufacturing.

Conservation and succession efforts

In 2010, the Yubeshi Souhonke [Nakauraya] attempted to reproduce historical yubeshi through methods found in the Edo period cookbooks using raw materials from Ishikawa Prefecture as much as possible.

Main consumption method

This yubeshi is cut into strips and eaten as-is as snacks with tea or appetizers with alcoholic beverages. They are also used for cheese appetizers, salad, or for Western cuisine, such as pizza. Finely sliced yubeshi used in steamed egg custard, clear soups, and spinach salads are said to bring out the flavors of the ingredients. Yubeshi cut into quarter rounds can also be lightly roasted on charcoal or cooked as tempura.

At-home recipes：Maruyubeshi and cheese canape

Ingredients

Maruyubeshi

1 pc

Camembert cheese

1/2 pc

cracker

6 pcs.

How to make

Slice Maruyubeshi and cut Camembert cheese into six pieces.

Put Maruyubeshi and Camembert cheese cut in 1 above on crackers and place them on a dish.

Contact

Food Cultures Office, Overseas Market Development and Food Cultures Division, Food Industry Affairs Bureau, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries

Tel:+81-3-3502-5516