Friday, June 29, 2007

UMEBOSHI [2]

Three days passed since I put plums in salt.
Well, shall we check them?





This picture is today's plums.
We can see that the clear ume vinegar appears.
We call this white plum vinegar, "Shiro-ume-zu" in Japanese.



I reduce a weight to 1 today.
And I cover a container with its lid and put it in the dark, cool place again.

Thursday, June 28, 2007

UMEBOSHI [1]

It is the first how to make pickled plums this time.
The things to prepare are...

well ripe yellow plums (2kg)
salt ( 300g)
vodka (100cc)

an enamel container with the handle and its lid
two weights (2kg×2)
a wooden drop lid
a clean towel

(And I will use two pieces of glass flat dishes later.)


1: I soak the plums in water for about 1 hour.
By doing it this way, a fruit is easy to become it away from the seed later. In addition, I can pull lye.
During this time, I wash tools and dry them, and I spray vodka and sterilize it.

2: After taking plums out from water, I remove twigs with bamboo skewers carefully. (picture 1)
And I wipe plums with vodka more than 35 degrees and sterilize it.








3: I put plums in the container of the enamel
and sprinkle salt on them. (picture 2&3)

















4: I add vodka to there, shake the container up and down,
and salt turns around in the whole. (picture 4)









5: I put a wooden drop lid and put two weights on the top
and cover it with a clean towel. (picture 5&6&7)






















6: I put this in the dark, cool place in my house, and it is the end of the first step.

For three or four days, I should shake the container in morning and evening, twice a day.
But while I do this work, all the room is filled with the nice sweet smell of the plums and I am so happy!

And this is only just the opening of this work.(^-^)

the making of UMEBOSHI (pickled plum)!


In the morning of this Tuesday, I began the making of UMEBOSHI.

According to the another view, it is said that there is UMEBOSHI as traditional save food in Japan from the Heian period (about 1300years ago). But currently, the number of people who make UMEBOSHI may decrease because we can easily get it in supermarcket.

Well, I had not made UMEBOSHI before, but I brought myself to challenge it this year so far.
Therefore I'm going to report it from now on here.