June 12, 2014

Ume Jam and Ume Syrup 2014/梅ジャムと梅シロップ、2014年

Yesterday, we got a little over 6 kg of ao ume (unripe Japanese apricots) from my father, who lives in Chiba prefecture.
昨日は、千葉に住む父から青梅を6キロちょっともらいました。
My wife and I discussed and decided to make ume jam and ume syrup again this year.
妻と相談して、今年も梅ジャムと梅シロップを作ることにしました。

Removing the heta from each and every one of the ume is both time-consuming and tiring.
梅一個一個のへたを取るのは、時間がかかるし、疲れます。
But I did it in less than 20 minutes.
それでも20分かからずできました。
To make ume syrup, I used blemish-free ones (left). The ones on the bottom are slightly rotten, so I had to dispose of them.
梅シロップを作るのに、傷のないの(左)を使いました。下にあるのはちょっと腐っているもので、捨てました。
The ones in the right bowl were for making ume jam. I soaked them in a pot full of water.
右のボールに入っているのは梅ジャム用です。水をいっぱい入れた鍋に漬けました。
I'm going to soak them in water for a whole day, with several changes of water.
水を数回変えて、まる一日、水に漬けるつもりです。

Ume syrup making.
梅シロップ作り。

The ume for making ume syrup were more than 3 kg, so I thought I would use 3 kg of sugar.
梅シロップ用の梅は3 kg以上あったので、砂糖を3 kg使おうと思いました。
My wife and daughter watched me making ume syrup. My wife was surprised at the amount of sugar I was going to use. I ended up using 2 kg of sugar for 3 kg of ume.
妻と娘が、私が梅シロップを作っているところも見ていました。妻は、私が使おうとしている砂糖の量に驚きました。結局、3 kgの梅に対して砂糖を2 kg使いました。
If I see any signs of the ume going bad, I have to add some more sugar immediately.
梅が悪くなる兆候があったら、すぐにもっと砂糖を足さないと。

Related posts/関連記事:
Ume Drink/梅ジュース
Ume Jam 2013/梅ジャム、2013年

3 comments:

Sissi said...

If I could get hold of ume, I'd make umeshu... here we can get really the worst quality of umeshu only but when I was in Tokyo I bought twice excellent umeshu. My husband is even a bigger fan than me (if I have to choose I prefer shochu ;-) ).

Hiroyuki said...

Sissi: My wife also suggested making umeshu, but I said that by making ume syrup, she could have "ume chuhai" by mixing it with cheap shochu and my children could have "ume drink" by diluting it with water.

Men liking umeshu? Well, I wouldn't mind having umeshu in small quantities (with some water and lots of ice cubes), but in general, umeshu is considered an alcoholic beverage for women.

Sissi said...

Apparently, we don't have typical tastes ;-) 99% of the time we both prefer shochu, but if there is someone ordering umeshu, it's my husband (though he loves shochu... especially the chestnut one, but it's difficult to find even in Tokyo).
I think we treat umeshu a bit like a cocktail... and my husband likes sweeter cocktails than me.
On the other hand, the umeshu we both preferred in Tokyo were rather dry (I always asked for the least sweet in the department store), but my husband would like also a slightly sweeter one.
We don't know anything about sake, so we never order it.
Good idea with mixing the syrup and cheap shochu!