Cookbook | Ingredients | Recipes

| Cuisine of Japan

Umeboshi (梅干, pickled Japanese plum) is a kind of pickled food. It's one of the Japanese traditional foods and it has been popular in Japan. It is red, round, and its taste ranges from sour to sweet. Texture ranges from dry and crunchy to saturated and "globby", depending on the method it was preserved.

Ingredients

• Japanese plums
• Red shiso
• Salts

Procedure

1. Sterilize jar and utensils with potable alcohol or boiling water, remove damaged fruit.
2. Wash Japanese plums and wipe them dry.
3. Remove their stems.
4. Cover with water and let stand overnight.
5. Drain water and place plums in larger non-reactive container
6. Put salt and newly destemmed plums in the container.
7. Turn them repeatedly and vigorously.
8. Place a plate on top of plums.
9. Place big, heavy rock or bottle filled with water on top of plate to increase the pressuring done to the plums.
10. Wait until the water increases in the jar-will take two weeks or more.
11. Weather the Japanese plums for 3 days and 3 nights of sunny day in high summer on flat baskets or any other flat instrument.
12. Strain the liquid and boil to remove any impurities and save in a jar.
13. During step #8, rub salt into red chiso to remove scum.Squeeze the chiso to remove liquid.
14. Put the Japanese plums and red chiso into the jar with the saved liquid. If chiso is not ready, can be added to the plums later.