Thinking about staple food in Japan, one may think of rice, fish and miso. For me, it must also include umeboshi.
I remember a former colleague who keeps a jar of umeboshi inside his drawer (while I keep a banana in mine)… It may seem embarrassing but that’s– basic need.
If someone removes the rice or even the umeboshi out of the daily life of an Asian, trust me– all hell will break lose! Just recently, a Japanese agricultural minister was urged to resign because he hurt the masses just by saying he never had to buy rice amid soaring prices of supermarket rice in the country.
Moving on…
Why is it important to know how to make your own umeboshi when it’s easy to get a pack of ready-to-eat stuff from a convenience store or a supermarket?
The answer is: They use artificial ingredients like food coloring for mass production. Let me repeat that. They use artificial ingredients like food coloring for mass production. By now, the public should have been made aware of the health risks involved in consuming artificial food(s) made in laboratories.
These laboratories should stop this madness.
I am writing this recipe since someone may need it…
And that’s what Asian Santa is for. *wink*
Let’s get started.
Part I
1. Wash the plums.
2. Remove any remaining stem parts with a toothpick.
3. Wash again. (It should be perfectly clean. Remember you are in Japan! *wink*)
4. Dry the plums with a clean kitchen towel or paper towel.
5. Prepare 180-200 grams of salt and place a generous layer of it at the bottom of a very clean jar. (Hope you read my notes below before getting started.)
6. Add in your first layer of plums. Repeat the layering until all ingredients are in.
7. Put on some weight above the salted plums.
8. Keep in a cool and dry spot for 3-4 days. Allow the plums to gradually release moisture.
NOTES:
1. Your plums should have this blushing yellow color. If they are still green, you most probably need to wait for them to ripen first. We used 1 kg of plums for this recipe. A kilo has about 40 pcs. of plums. (But there are 365 days in a year… Assuming that an average Japanese person eats one umeboshi a day, you should probably consider turning your house into an umeboshi factory. *wink*)
2. Make sure that everything is dry and squeaky clean. I wiped the container and weight with alcohol (Japanese shochu–that’s alcohol you can drink) before placing all the ingredients. Doing so helps prevent molds from growing.
Asian Santa
June 23, 2025
To be continued…
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