Prunus Mume, lost in translation

All over the web, there are people asking what to do with umeboshi, or the green fruit, prunus mume, aka, ume, aka Japanese plum, aka xi muoi, aka, maesil, aka Korean green plum, aka muoi, aka mume.

Here in the San Gabriel Valley, nearly everyone eats something connected to this plant.

Mexicans use chamoy sauce, which has a name almost identical to xi muoi. History says it’s the same thing. They also eat saladitos, dried salted plum, which is the same thing.

East Asians and Southeast Asians drink plum wine. That’s wine infused with the flavor of this plum.

Hawaiians talk about Li Hing Muoi (a Chinese name) or Crack Seed. It’s the soft, sweet version of saladitos, which is muoi.

Japanese eat umeboshi, which has become a huge fad food.

Koreans, I’ve just read, do all kinds of things with it, making beverages, sweet preserves,

Drink for the day: salted lemonade + beer + Tajin chamoy

A lot of the lemonade, made from mashed preserved lemons (preserved in salt), Micheloeb ultra, and a few squirts of Tajin chamoy lite.

Record of Plums

Batch	Prep, Pressing Vessel	Storage
1st	Wash, bag in enamel pot. Molded.
2nd	Wash, plastic bowl. Several ume molded, but overall OK.	Large jar.
3rd 1	Wash, remove stems, plastic dish pan. Several ume molded.	Smaller open mouth vase.
3rd 2	Molded ones cleaned off, and re-pressed with some diluted sake and salt.	Drying
4th 1	Broken/fallen fruit. Washed, cut, soaked in sake to arrest spoilage. Packed in brown sugar. Pickle jar.	Pickle jar.
4th 2	Same prep. Smaller ginger bottle.	Ginger bottle.
5th	Small batch, cleaned, washed. Salted and pressed in Tupperware. Low on vinegar, had to add salt and water to cover fruit.	2 Kimchi bottles.

Batch	Description	Status
Fallen Fruit	Ripe fruit dropped into bucket of water. Starting around May 9.	Soaking
Moldy 1	Moldy salted, but cleaned off after bleach. Starting May 12.	Soaking
Moldy 2	Moldy salted, but didn’t fully clean off after bleach. Starting May 12.	Soaking