Kabosu ✦

Kabosu

What it is

Almost the whole Japanese crop — around ninety-seven per cent — comes from a single prefecture, Ōita, where trees at Usuki are reckoned to be two and even three hundred years old. It is picked and used green: left on the branch it yellows, and the juice loses the edge it is grown for.

In the kitchen

Treat it as a juice fruit, not a zesting fruit — count twenty to thirty millilitres a fruit, roughly twice what a sudachi gives. Squeeze it over grilled fish or into ponzu off the heat; a minute of simmering flattens the aroma.

Goes with

Soy sauce Katsuobushi (dried bonito) Gilt-head bream Mackerel Silken tofu (kinugoshi) Daikon Hon-mirin Matsutake

Same species

Bergamot Candied citron Chenpi Citron Menton lemon Makrut lime

Also used with

Pacific saury (sanma)

In season alongside

Buckler-leaf sorrel Cucamelon Mountain sorrel Begonia petals Cilantro / Coriander Finger lime

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