Umeboshi is the Japanese name for pickled plums. It serves as a kind of appetiser and frequently appears on the side of a ‘bento’ or lunch box. Sometimes, it is also the stuffing of choice in an ‘onigiri’ or triangularly shaped rice ball. This is my first time at trying to pickle anything. I imagined that it would be very fulfilling to see the changes taking place every day until the time when they can finally be eaten. Plums from Wakayama are the best for pickling. Intensely sour and bitter, not very nice at all when you try to eat it raw – as I did.
To remove the bitterness, I soaked the plums overnight in water. So far, so good. The next day, I was supposed to dry them, rub coarse sea salt and pour shochu/vodka all over the plums. But, since I had neither shochu nor vodka at home, I decided to skip this step and went on to place them in a jar with a weight on them. The jar was then stored in a cool, dark place for 2 days. The picture above was taken after the 2 days in darkness. After the liquid comes out of the plums, there is supposed to be a great deal more work to be done before finally storing it in a dark place for another 10 days to 1 year. (Like wine, the older they get, the more flavourful they become.)
However, looking at the jar of plums in front of me, I could not decide whether sufficient liquid had came out of the plums yet, so I decided to leave it for 1 more day. Bad idea. 1 day later, the plums had black, white and green mold growing on them. Too gross to have a picture taken. My first attempt at pickling had ended prematurely in disaster.
I don’t know which was a bigger mistake – storing it for longer than necessary or deciding to skip the shochu/vodka. Now, I have to wait till next June to try again. The best harvest for plums (to pickle) is only in June.
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