I pulled out the plums from the batch that I tried to “cure” with alcohol, called 3rd 2. It was soaked in weak sake that had been diluted a bit, and then salted, and it was way too hard. The alcohol killed off too much of the plum, and left it unable to ripen.
I’m going to set it outside, and see if that fixes it. The sunlight might cause it to ripen.
Small bits of mold are still on the plums, so I consider the batch “ruined”, and hopeless.
I took the softest plum, and took it apart, and tasted the flesh around the bit. I tasted just a slight hint of alcohol, and the strong flavor of ripening fruit. So maybe there is some potential to correct it.
The outer skin was firm, almost tough.
The spotty black mold is tough. It ruined much of the first batch, and even a bleach+water solution didn’t seem to remove it. Maybe it killed it, but the black dots were still on there. Avoid it by sanitizing everything.
The white/blue bread mold, however, seems to be easier to wash off.
Maesil-Cheong progress
I saw a post that showed someone putting a hole into the fruit, using a toothpick. So I figured I’d try that, as well. Maybe the insides would leak out.
The syrup tastes good!
My mix is brown sugar, rather than white sugar. So, it tastes like brown sugar, molasses, and fruit.
Other than that, I’ve been busy, and unable to keep working on the other parts of the project. I’ll get to them.