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Soak Ume into water for a few hours to remove astringency

Drying them under the sun

First bottle, adding vodka.

First bottle, adding vodka. Second bottle, I mixed brandy and sake

First bottle, Vodka Umeshu.

Umeshu, 5th day

Ume Miso - homemade rice miso

Ume Miso - Cane sugar added on top

Ume Miso

Ume Miso-Second Day. Start mixing once a day.

Ume Miso 5th day

Ume Shyoyu

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Have you ever eaten Japanese Umeboshi / 梅干し? My grandmother makes them every year during Ume season which lasts from May to June. Ume is a Japanese prune/apricot. We never eat it fresh because fresh ume contains hydrocyanic acid. It doesn’t taste good either because of it’s high astringency.

They are super sour and I could hardly eat a whole Umeboshi by myself when I was a child. Umeboshi was commonly made at home in pre-modern Japan starting from the Edo period. Even before the Edo period, umeboshi had been used for its properties as a medicine, antidote, nutrient, and sterilizer. There is a famous old saying, good medicine taste bitter, and that’s exactly applied to Umeboshi. As a child, I was forced to eat Umeboshi as a medicine and that was painful act indeed.  There are much more to talk about when it comes to Umeboshi. I like to introduce more on unique history of Umeboshi when I start preparing my own batch.

Since Umeboshi uses ripe Ume fruit, it’s still early to make it.  Instead I’d like to introduce some Ume recipes that you can make right now. I’ve started seeing young green Ume but not ripe ones at the Japanese market in LA and luckily, I recieved a whole bag of Ume from my friend last week. These recipes are so simple and easy to reproduce. I like them since they add fruity flavor to the basic Japanese seasoning such as miso and soy sauce! Just try make a smaller batch for this year’s early Ume season.

[Ume Shu]
Some benefits of umeshu: It has citric acid that helps you to recover from fatigue and helps to absorb calcium.  It also has more minerals than regular mineral water. The aroma of umeshu is refreshing and it’s suited for an apertif as its citric acid helps to stimulate the appetite and promote digestion.
Recipe:
Ume                  1kg     or    2.2lbs
Rock sugar    700g    or    1.5lbs
Shochu           1.8L     or    60 fl oz

1. Wash ume and soak them in water for 2 to 4 hours to remove the astringent taste.
2. Dry them completely and remove their entire stems. In the mean time, sanitize a glass jar by boiling it in water.
3. Layer the ume and rock sugar and then pour the shochu. Shochu could be substituted with vodka or another type of alcohol. If you would like it to keep longer, it is recommended to use a strong alcohol with more than 35 percent alcohol content.
4. Leave it for 3 months before tasting it. For the first few weeks, shake the bottle a little to mix the rock sugar. Some households in Japan keep their umeshu for years.

[Ume Miso]
Ume Miso is great to make a marinade for fish and meat. You can also make a nice dressing with this miso. I will provide recipes for this when my ume miso is ready!
Recipe:
Ume        1kg     or    2.2lbs
Miso        1kg     or    2.2lbs
Sugar        700g    or    1.6lbs

1. Follow steps 1 & 2 from the recipe to make umeshu
2. Put miso in a bottle and cover the bottom of the bottle with it.  Then lay some of the ume on top.  Cover up with sugar. Repeat this several times.
3. Keep it in a dark cool space. It will be ready to serve after a month.

[Ume Shoyu]

This is so easy to make and will give a nuanced flavor to regular soy sauce. It goes great with cold tofu, sashimi, etc.

Ume             500g     or     1lbs
Soy sauce    500g     or    1lbs
gauzw          1piece

1. Follow steps 1& 2 from the recipe to make umeshu.
2. Then add soy sauce and ume together and cover with gauze.
3. It takes about 3 weeks for the ume fragrance to fuse with the soy sauce.