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Fruit from Yamanashi, Japan

Koshu koume-zuke (crunchy small ume)甲州小梅漬

Small green Koshu ume are soaked overnight, rubbed with 10 % salt and weighted over a bag of crushed egg shell, whose calcium keeps them crunchy. When the white ume vinegar has risen, salted red shiso, rice vinegar and shōchū go in, and the plums are kept in the umezu in the refrigerator. It is a salt cure, not a microbial ferment, and the plums are never sun-dried.

Fully documentedFruit30 days

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceMAFF's regional-cuisine recipe, from a recipe book by Shinkai Keiko, for about 600 plums. Recipes differ by area and household.
Koshu koume, green2 kg (about 600 plums)[maff-koshu]
Salt200 g10 % of the plum weight[maff-koshu]
Egg shells, washed, dried and crushed in a gauze bag15Natural calcium that keeps the plums crunchy[maff-koshu]
Red shiso4–5 bunches (400 g trimmed)[maff-koshu]
Salt for the shiso40 g10 % of the shiso weight[maff-koshu]
Rice vinegar100 ml[maff-koshu]
Shōchū (35 %)80 ml[maff-koshu]

Total time across the recorded steps: 30 days

Start
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Close-up: water moving into a grain

What changes: The small green plums soak overnight in plenty of water to lose their harshness

Step 1 of 5
Soak overnight and remove the stems
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

Soaking draws out the harshness (aku); the plums are then wiped dry.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Small green Koshu ume are soaked overnight, rubbed with 10 % salt and weighted over a bag of crushed egg shell, whose calcium keeps them crunchy. When the white ume vinegar has risen, salted red shiso, rice vinegar and shōchū go in, and the plums are kept in the umezu in the refrigerator. It is a salt cure, not a microbial ferment, and the plums are never sun-dried. Made in 5 steps over 30 days. The longest step, keep in the umezu in the refrigerator, takes 30 days (MAFF うちの郷土料理 (Our Regional Cuisines)). Salt is 10 % (MAFF うちの郷土料理 (Our Regional Cuisines)).

Key numbers
Main step30 daysReported[maff-koshu]Keep in the umezu in the refrigerator
Salt10 %Reported[maff-koshu]Rub with salt until greener
AciditypH up to 3.5Set[jas1752]Keep in the umezu in the refrigerator

What makes this one different

Koshu koume-zuke are never sun-dried; they are stored in the ume vinegar (dobu-zuke). Egg shell in the bottom of the tub gives the calcium that keeps them crunchy.

Related ferments

Safety

Most of the amygdalin in ume, a cyanogenic glucoside that can release hydrogen cyanide when the fruit is chewed or bruised, is in the seed [ramalingam2024]. Raw green ume are high in these compounds and not fit to eat. Japan's agriculture ministry says pickling as umezuke breaks them down and greatly reduces them, but gives no figure or time for a recipe like this one [maff-loquat]. Do not crack or eat the stones. JAS sets umezuke of small ume at pH 3.5 or lower [jas1752].

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

Koshu small ume were recorded as a Yamanashi speciality in the late Edo period, and ume growing spread as silk farming declined. Yamanashi is said still to produce the most small ume in Japan, and the dish is one of the 47 "special Yamanashi foods" [maff-koshu].

Starter
The sources we found do not say how its fermentation begins.
Microbes
No study we found names its microbes.
  1. [maff-loquat] MAFF, ビワの種子の粉末は食べないようにしましょう (cyanide compounds in the seeds and unripe fruit of loquat, ume and related fruits, with a note on green ume)gov
  2. [maff-koshu] MAFF うちの郷土料理 (Our Regional Cuisines), 甲州小梅漬 (Koshu koume-zuke, Yamanashi); recipe from おごっそうの玉手箱 レシピ集 by 新海桂子gov
  3. [jas1752] MAFF, Japanese Agricultural Standard JAS 1752:2025, Pickled agricultural products (農産物漬物), section 4.10 umezuke and umeboshispec
  4. [ramalingam2024] Ramalingam S., Kumar V., Bahuguna A., Lee J.S., Kim M. 2024, The effect of one-year fermentation of maesil fruit (Prunus mume) sugar syrup on amygdalin level, a natural toxic compound, Foods 13(16):2609, doi:10.3390/foods13162609 (a study of ume, called maesil in Korea, steeped in sugar)paper