Maesil-cheong

Fragrant unripe green plums layered in equal weight with sugar in a glass jar and left to steep for some hundred days, drawing out a clear amber sour-sweet syrup strained off to sweeten marinades, dressings, and chilled summer drinks

Origin: Korea

From the journey of Plum.

Maesil-cheong is the cornerstone of Korean home preserving, a fragrant syrup drawn from the green ume plum (Prunus mume, called maesil in Korean) by the simplest of means: nothing but fruit, sugar, and time. Each year as the maesil ripen briefly in early summer, Korean households buy them by the boxful, and the making of the syrup is a seasonal rite passed down through families. The unripe plums, still hard and intensely sour, are washed, dried, and layered in a large glass jar with an equal weight of sugar; over the following months the sugar draws the juice from the fruit by osmosis and dissolves into it, yielding a clear, perfumed liquid that is at once tart and sweet. The traditional reckoning is around a hundred days of steeping before the syrup is strained from the spent plums, after which it is bottled and keeps for a year or more, often improving as it matures. Its uses run right through the Korean kitchen: it is the natural sweetener stirred into countless marinades and dipping sauces in place of refined sugar, the souring lift in salad dressings and cold noodle broths, and, let down with cold water or sparkling water, the basis of a cooling summer drink. Maesil is esteemed in Korea as a digestive and a restorative, and a spoonful of the syrup in warm water is a common household remedy for an upset stomach, so that the jar in the larder is regarded as both pantry staple and medicine chest.

Ingredients

Plums

  • 1 kg firm, unripe green plums (maesil)

Sugar

  • 1 kg white granulated sugar (an equal weight to the fruit)

Method

  1. Soak the green plums in cold water for 1 to 2 hours, then rinse them well. With a cocktail stick, pick out the small stem nub from the dimple of each plum.
  2. Dry the plums completely with a clean cloth and spread them out to air for a while until not a trace of moisture remains.
  3. Sterilise a large glass jar and dry it fully. Layer the plums and sugar inside, beginning with a bed of sugar, alternating fruit and sugar, and finishing with a thick blanket of sugar over the top to seal the fruit from the air.
  4. Seal the jar and keep it in a cool, dark place. Over the first week or two the sugar will begin to dissolve and draw juice from the plums.
  5. Every few days for the first fortnight, tilt or gently turn the jar to move the syrup over any sugar still sitting on top, helping it dissolve evenly. Once all the sugar has liquefied, leave the jar undisturbed.
  6. Leave to steep for around 100 days. The plums will shrink and pale as they give up their juice, and the liquid will turn a clear amber. Strain the syrup from the spent fruit through a fine sieve and bottle it in sterilised containers.

Notes

Green maesil are sold briefly in early summer by Korean grocers and some online suppliers; ordinary unripe greengages or other hard sour plums make a serviceable substitute. The classic ratio is one part sugar to one part fruit by weight, which gives a stable syrup that resists spoilage; reducing the sugar yields a fresher taste but a less reliable keeper. The drained plums need not be wasted: they can be sliced from the stone and candied further in a little extra sugar, or chopped into relishes. Do not be alarmed if a faint sparkle or smell of fermentation develops in a warm room; straining the syrup promptly and chilling it usually arrests it.

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