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THE basic pickling process for umeboshi is as follows:
Hull the plums and soak in water.
Transfer clean plums and salt into a sterilized container and leave it to rest. Salted plum juice will seep out of the fruits. Once there’s plenty of juice, thoroughly wash fresh red shiso and add the leaves to the mixture. The pickling process officially begins.
On a fine, sunny day sometime during July or August, carefully take the plums and red shiso out of the salted plum juice and leave them to dry under the sun. You must check the weather forecast before this process. Ideally, you want to dry them for three days. Depending on the situation, you can put them back into the salted plum juice temporarily before drying them again.
Transfer the dried plums and red shiso into a convenient container for eating, then pour in the salted plum juice. Now, your umeboshi is ready to eat.
As for when your plums are the most susceptible to the assault of mold, it’s step 2. This is also where I’m up to.
The traditional method is to rest your plums with salt in a container to make salted plum juice. Make sure to calculate the salt content necessary. After adding the salt, put down some kind of weight to encourage the plum juice to seep out.
Mistakes made during this step are fatal. Not having enough salt, not having enough plum juice, and not sterilizing your equipment properly will invite mold to feast on your plums. One lapse of attention is enough for mold to take over your entire container.
At that point, you’re done for. There might be a few plums that haven’t been contaminated, but an amateur has no way of telling them apart. You don’t know how to remove the toxins either, so sadly, into the bin they go.
Having a higher salt content will decrease the probability of a mold outbreak, but your umeboshi will be too salty to eat, and it’s bad for your health. But you’ve already heard the horrors of having too little salt. It’s an extremely challenging juggling act.
So, you ask, is there any way to make umeboshi simply while avoiding disaster? How do you make umeboshi that’s slightly sweetened by honey and sugar, which makes it easier to grow mold? How do you protect your beloved little red umeboshi from the big bad mold?
The answer, my friend, is…
“…our first defense line against spoilage, the fridge!” I explained animatedly to Kon. “Back in the day without fridges, people had to store them in earthenware pots and in a cool, dark place, but the wonders of modern technology simplify the process for us! I used to throw out batch after batch of bad plums, but after I started making them in the fridge, never again have I suffered defeat at the hands of nasty mold,” I said theatrically.
“You can decrease the salt content without feeling anxiety, and you can check on the state of your umeboshi easily every day when you fetch ingredients. I would recommend using transparent or translucent containers to make the latter easier. Of course, plastic bags would work too.”
Six hours had already passed since I began soaking the plums. We were riding on the coattails of the afternoon and heading into early evening.
I gave my lengthy lecture to Kon as I retrieved zipper bags, which had also played an active role during my other cooking sessions, such as the smoked meat for the wedding. Kon looked overwhelmed by my enthusiasm, and he stared at me with wonder before scrutinizing the alcohol disinfectant spray that I’d fetched. It was the type that could be used in the kitchen.
“You said that there won’t be any mold in the fridge,” he began. “Do you still have to clean it with alcohol?”
I nodded as I took the spray into my hand. “Maybe pickling it in the fridge means I don’t have to sterilize the container, but I want to decrease the chances as much as possible. Plus, there’s no downside to taking more sanitary measures. I’m going to disinfect my hands, my arms, the tongs I’ll use to pick up the plums, and depending on the type of container, I’ll sterilize it too. Some containers don’t react well to alcohol, so I always check the manuals as I go.”
He nodded fervently. “I seeeee! I’ll make sure to disinfect everything properly when I make umeboshi too!”
The two of us shared a smile before I did exactly as I’d announced. Seeing me spraying the alcohol on my hands and arms, Kon reached his tiny hands out gingerly. He probably wanted to follow my example. Giving him a small nod, I lightly sprayed some alcohol onto his hands. Then, I proceeded to sterilize the equipment.
Next, I opened the zipper bag wide and transferred the floating plums carefully from the bowl of water with a pair of tongs. I didn’t wipe the plums on any surface—I only waved my tongs to shake off the surface water. As quickly as I could, I moved one plum into the zipper bag after another.
Though I’d disinfected Kon’s hands today, I’d asked him to sit out and watch just this once. He could help me when we got to the stage of sun drying, but I was still recovering from my mold trauma. The current stage was the most vulnerable and dangerous part, and I wanted to finish it as quickly as I could. I felt apologetic, but it had to be done.
Actually, Kon might grow a bit bigger by this time next year. He’ll also be a more experienced chef, so maybe he can help me out then.
I soon finished stuffing the umeboshi into the zipper pack. Without hesitation, I dumped in the salt I’d measured beforehand. Taking care to squeeze out the air, I sealed the zipper. I’d finished everything there was to do for now.
Allowing myself to breathe a sigh of relief, I finally had the luxury of talking to him. “If you’re worried that the juice might leak out, you can put on a second layer of zipper bag. Oh, and after you add the shiso, you have to knead the shiso inside the salted plum juice to transfer the red color. If you use a zipper bag like I am, you don’t have to take out the juice—you can do it all inside the bag.”
I paused and gave him a wry smile. “Well, some people think it’s heresy and avoid it like the plague, but it’s easy and produces consistent results. I think it’s totally valid. Okay, future plans aside, let’s put this into the fridge. Usually, they say that sun drying it during midsummer is the best idea, so you can look forward to that.”
Kon approached the bag of plums and salt. He inspected it closely and prodded it carefully with his finger before looking up at me. “Mikura, you said that you messed up a lot of times, so I thought making umeboshi is a nightmare. But…it doesn’t seem that tough?”
I hummed in thought. “The fridge method is easy if you’re only aiming for moderate to good results. It doesn’t grow mold easily, so you don’t have to measure the salt content like a perfectionist, and monitoring it is low effort too. As long as you get to the sun drying step, even if you don’t use that much salt, the sun will kill the spores and mold. Basically, the fridge is a barrier protecting your umeboshi during its most vulnerable stages.