A handwritten recipe for yuzu daikon — passed from a former professional cook to her family and then posted to X by her son — has drawn roughly 15,000 likes, after the poster, who goes by Motsunabe (@motsu______), shared his mother’s “special yuzu daikon” along with photos of the finished dish.
The post, which Hint-Pot says appeared in recent days, consists of three photographs. The first shows the ingredients — daikon radish, yuzu, and red chili peppers among them. The second shows the finished pickles in a square glass container: translucent white daikon submerged in seasoning liquid, scattered with bright yellow strips of yuzu peel, a single red chili placed in the center. The third is the recipe itself, handwritten and illustrated, which is what set the replies alight.
The man who posted it barely eats pickles at all. He told Hint-Pot he dislikes vinegar and normally avoids pickled dishes entirely — yet when his wife made the yuzu daikon from her mother-in-law’s recipe, his verdict was simple: delicious. He credits the slightly sweet seasoning for winning him over.
Yuzu Daikon Recipe Gains Popularity on X
- A former cook’s handwritten yuzu daikon recipe, posted to X by her son, has collected about 15,000 likes.
- The recipe was actually passed to the poster’s wife first, who loves it enough to eat a whole batch alone at her in-laws’ home.
- The full ingredient list — daikon, two yuzu, rice vinegar, sugar, kelp, chili — is written out in the post, with a peeler tip for the yuzu peel.
The Recipe That 15,000 People Saved
The ingredient list, as transcribed in the post, reads like a family recipe card that has survived decades of use: one daikon radish, three-quarters of a cup of sugar (twice), three-quarters of a cup of rice vinegar, one tablespoon of salt, two yuzu, two red chilies, and a five-centimeter piece of kelp.
| Ingredient | Amount (per the handwritten recipe) |
|---|---|
| Daikon radish | 1 whole |
| Sugar | 3/4 cup × 2 |
| Rice vinegar | 3/4 cup |
| Salt | 1 tablespoon |
| Yuzu | 2 |
| Red chili pepper | 2 |
| Kelp | 5 cm |
The method is laid out step by step, with illustrations: peel the daikon, cut it lengthwise into quarters, then into batons. Salt it and leave it for about an hour. Wash, squeeze lightly, and submerge it in the seasoning liquid. The fine print matters, too — the yuzu peel must be shaved thin, because the white pith brings bitterness, and the kelp is to be cut into fine strips.
But the detail that melted the replies was a practical one. Peeling yuzu intimidates home cooks, and one commenter admitted as much — before concluding that with a vegetable peeler, “I could probably manage it.” The poster himself had flagged the same shortcut in his original caption: peel the yuzu with a peeler and it’s easy.
Who Actually Learned It First: The Wife
The family chain behind the recipe is more tangled than the post’s caption suggests.
“My wife loves this recipe so much that when we visit my parents’ home, she eats a whole batch by herself,” he told Hint-Pot — which is why she asked for the recipe in the first place. The “exclusive” in the story’s framing belongs to her; the son simply documented the handover.
And the mother? According to what the poster has heard, she cooked primarily Japanese food, and her skill was good enough that acquaintances asked her to work in the restaurants they ran, moving from one establishment to another. He notes he never pressed her for details — the conversation with his mother, for years, revolved around the children and work.
Why a Plate of Pickled Daikon Hit a Nerve
The replies tell their own story. Alongside the peeler comment came an enthusiastic verdict on how it looked, and the line that Hint-Pot chose for its headline: “A former cook’s mother’s special — that’s basically the ultimate weapon of home cooking. Yuzu daikon, noted.”
The timing helps.
A Recipe That Outlived the Kitchens
The mother no longer works restaurant kitchens, as far as her son knows.
