Rurutea’s Unripe Plum Syrup Recipe
C: “Unripe plum syrup. Last year I made two jars of syrup. I used a newly-bought jar and it came out delicious, but as for the other jar, I reused one that I used before to make pickled leeks, so the syrup acquired a pickled leek smell... lol. This year I’ll be careful.”
K: I look forward to it being done~
Right: Unripe plum syrup
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Unripe plums ... 1kg (aoume)
Sugar crystals ... 1kg (koorizatou)
Vinegar ... 1 tablespoon* (su)
(* My home’s amounts)*
TN: I’m assuming the last line means it’s to personal taste. Also double check measurement differences from Japan. I know Japan has different cup sizes vs American cup measurements, so a tablespoon might differ as well. Transliteration provided to aid ingredient research.
Unripe Plum (青梅, aoume)
Aoume, the word for unripe plum, literally means “green plum” (青, or ao means both green or blue, and is often used to signify youth or unripeness). You will see this same idea in many compound words that contain the kanji for blue/green (青), such as seinen (青年) or seishun (青春), which both mean youth. Seinen can also mean young man.
What is Unripe Plum Syrup, or Ume Plum Syrup?
I found a recipe for Ume Plum Syrup on one of my favorite recipe sites, Just One Cookbook, where I learned more about what this is. Please check out the recipe for further details, as I don’t want to rip her content too much.
Ume Plum Syrup is syrup made from unripe (green) plums and rock sugar, which are left in a jar to set for about 2 weeks. It’s apparently quite delicious as a refreshing summer drink when mixed with ice-cold water.
Unripe plums are sold in Japanese and Korean markets (in the US) in early to mid-May. Since pickling plums is a process that extends throughout the summer (check back later for my upcoming posts that will explain this and what doyouboshi is), making unripe plum syrup seems to be a way of kicking off the start of summer. If you saw my translation of Koupen-chan wanting to pickle plums (blog post), this makes sense, as Koupen-chan mentions making umeboshi in early summer.
I’m a little envious of Japan having such neat little traditions like this, especially since this doesn’t seem too hard. Maybe I’ll give it a try next year~
