June 28, 2016

Making Low-Salt Umeboshi, Day 9, Final Post for Now/低塩梅干し作り、9日目、今のところ最終投稿

Yesterday (Day 8), I made several decisions after discussing with my wife, who is the major consumer of umeboshi in my family. We agreed that the umezuke (pickled ume), made by adding 20% sugar to ume pickled in salt water for 5 days but not dried for 4 days,
昨日(8日目)は、妻(我が家では一番梅干しを食べる人)と話してから、色々と決断をしました。意見が合ったのは、梅漬け(塩水に5日間漬けたが、4日間干していない梅に砂糖を20%足したもの)は、
were not bad after all. In fact, they were quite tasty. So, I decided to follow my father's recipe until the end.
悪いものではなかった、ということ。実際、とても美味しいです。というわけで、父のレシピに最後まで従うことにしました。

In Japan, we are now in tsuyu (rainy season), and yesterday was really a lucky day for me. As I described in the preceding post, I started to dry some of the ume in the sun early in the morning (before 7), while leaving the others indoors. At around noon, I checked the ume outdoors, and was surprised to see that they had turned reddish.
日本では、今、梅雨(つゆ)で、昨日は本当にラッキーな一日でした。先に述べたように、梅の一部を朝早く(7時前)に日干しし始めました。残りは室内に置いたまま。昼頃、屋外の梅を見て、赤っぽくなっているのにびっくりしました。
I immediately started to dry the other ume in the sun. Notice the difference in color.
すぐに、残りの梅も日干ししました。色の違いを見てください。
Unfortunately, the ones that I started to dry in the sun after noon did not turn reddish at around 3:30, probably because of less intense sunlight.
残念ながら、昼過ぎに日干しし始めた梅は3:30頃でも赤っぽくなりませんでした。太陽の光が弱かったせいだと思います。 
Ume that I started to dry in the sun early in the morning:
朝早くから日干しし始めた梅: 
I decided to end the drying process yesterday. Rain was expected for today (and it's raining right now).
干す段階は昨日で終わらせることにしました。明日は雨の予報(現に今、降っています)。

I followed my father's recipe for 200 g of the ume first.
父のレシピをまず200 gの梅で試しました。 
Add 40 g sugar, and some shochu with an alcohol content of 35%.
砂糖を40 g、アルコール度数35%の焼酎を少し入れます。 
(Again, I used 25% shochu.)
(私はまた25%の焼酎を使いました。)

Shake the container gently to mix them.
容器を優しく振って、混ぜます。
 
This morning, I checked the low-salt umeboshi.
今朝、低塩梅干しを見てみました。
I tasted one, and found it was quite good.
一つ味見しましたが、美味しかったです。


Yesterday, I decided to leave the other dried ume (> 5 kg) unprocessed, put them in four I-Wrap bags, put two of them in the freezer and the other two in the vegetable compartment of the fridge.
For these ume, we can select from three options: 1. Have them as they are, without adding salt or sugar; 2. Add 3% salt to make them taste like conventional umeboshi (I found that 6% was too much for me); and 3. Add 20% sugar, by following my father's recipe.
昨日は、残りの干した梅(5キロ以上)は処理しないことに決め、アイラップ4つに分け、2つは冷凍庫に、もう2つは冷蔵庫の野菜室に入れました。
この梅に関しては、選択肢が3つ: 1.塩も砂糖も足さずにそのまま食べる、2.塩を3%足し、普通の梅干しのような味にする(6%は私には多過ぎました)、3.父のレシピ通り、砂糖を20%足す。

The umeboshi that I made by adding 6% salt were too salty for my taste, as I described above, so I rinsed them in water to remove some excess salt.
塩を6%足して作った梅干しは、上述の通り、私の口には塩辛すぎるので、水洗いして余分な塩を少し取りました。  

The end.
終わり。

6 comments:

dracuella said...

One of the many things I've come to love while learning about washoku is umeboshi. Living in Denmark, however, they're quite expensive to purchase and I usually have to get them abroad from the UK. So this year I thought I'd try and purchase one ume tree. Just a small one but my hope is I will have fruit within a few years and then I shall make my own umeboshi - trying out you and your father's recipe.
Thank you for a great blog with lots of inspiration for those of us who don't live in Japan.

Hiroyuki said...

dracuella:
Thanks for your comment. You must be exceptional! I know there are just a lot of non-Japanese people who hate umeboshi, and I'm not a huge fan of umeboshi myself!
Getting an ume tree should be a great idea, because that way, you can enjoy viewing the blossoms, having unripe ume, and finally having ripe ume!

I will make some modifications to my father's recipe next year. I'm thinking of pickling the ume in 5% salt (not salt water) first so I can get some umezu (ume vinegar).

dracuella said...

I think more people would like them if they just find the right one. I tried some (made in China) with far too high salt % and I could only really find use for them by drying them completely and using them in furikake. I think if I had stopped there, I'd probably be one of the ones who don't like umeboshi. Luckily I'm stubborn and found some others which I thoroughly enjoyed (on rice, that's my favourite).

Yes, I look forward to seeing the ume tree blossom early in winter, as I have read they do. My garden isn't big but there's still room for one more tree (I have an apple tree and a regular plum tree). I could only finde one place that sells them so I won't know which colour it is, though, that will be a surprise. And the fruits, I can't wait to try my own!

Umezu, that sounds interesting, what would you use it for? Do you have a specific purpose in mind? Oil-vinegar dressing for salads?

Hiroyuki said...

dracuella:
Traditional umeboshi contain as much as 20% salt. Contemporary ones contain much less, say, 12-10%. And, low-salt versions contain 8-3%, and are usually sweetened with honey. The ones you like may be low-salt ones.

Interestingly, according to Wikipedia, umeboshi were a byproduct of umezu making in days of old. Umezu can be used in a variety of ways in cooking. For example, it can be used to make shibazuke. I hope I can make beni shoga (red pickled ginger), using home-made umezu.

muskratbyte said...

Oh please post your shibazuke and benishoga!!!!! I'm a pickle fanatic.

Hiroyuki said...

muskratbyte: Are you? I didn't know that!

I hope I can post them next year...