Karikari ume ✦

Karikari ume

What it is

The crunch is chemistry: a calcium salt goes into the brine, and calcium ions cross-link the pectin of the unripe fruit so the flesh cannot collapse the way it does in umeboshi. The window is short — the ume must be picked hard and green in late May and early June, weeks before they would be ripe enough for umeboshi.

In the kitchen

If you make them, pick the stem scar out with a bamboo skewer — left in, it holds bitterness and starts the rot. Keep them refrigerated: at room temperature the pectin relaxes and the whole point of them is lost.

Goes with

Rice Shiso Katsuobushi (dried bonito) Cucumber Junmai sake Salt

Same species

Bergeron apricot Almond Almond flour Almond oil Amardine Amarena cherry in syrup

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