Around July, little sugar plums would emerge at the Brooklyn Prospect Park farmer’s market plump and resplendent in their gold, ruby, and violet skins. Charmed by these gentle nuggets, I began preserving them with a Korean lacto-fermentation method used to make maesil-chung. Maesil-cheong is an extract or syrup made from green unripened apricots that are packed in sugar and left to ferment for 100 days. During this time, the sandy sugar turns into a clear then richly hued liquid. After 100 days, the syrup is ready to strain. The remaining fruit can be used one more time to make a plum flavored liquor.
This is a fabulous low-drama long term fermentation project. During this summer, I’ve made three types of syrup with cherries, green Reine Claude plums, and purple Quetsch plums. And, I’ll most likely make another jar of Quetsch syrup and one with small yellow Mirabel plums before the season ends. I love to burp the jars every few days and taste how the flavors of the syrups changes over time. Although I’m sad to see summer go, I’m excited for the syrups to become ready to brighten up my cooking during the dark and cold winter months.
I’ll share recipes of how to use this beauty syrup in the coming months. I hope you’ll make some syrup with me. Stay in the loop by subscribing to my monthly newsletter!
Recipe Type: Low-drama project
Time: 100 days, plus some light maintenance.
Servings: around ¾ a liter of syrup
Ingredients
~400 grams of firm summer plums (cherries or currants work well too)
~400 grams of white sugar
Optional
1 bottle of vodka or 4 bottles of soju
Equipment
1 sterilized glass 1 liter jar or 1.5 liter glass jar
Scale
Masking tape and permanent marker
Instructions
The ratio of fruit to sugar is 1:1. You can use as much or as little fruit as you want. I’ve written this recipe to fit into a one liter jar. You can scale it up or down as you wish.
Preservation
Wash, sterilize, and dry a 1 liter glass jar (you can sterilize with boiling water or run the jar through a dishwasher). Then, wash and drain the fruit. Weigh the fruit and add the exact same amount of sugar to another bowl—if you have 453 grams of fruit, you’ll need 453 grams of sugar. Set aside a half cup of sugar to top the fruit later.
Fill the sterilized jar by layering the fruit and sugar taking care to pack the jar tightly while not damaging the fruit. Add the reserved ½ cup of sugar to the top of the jar at the end so that the fruit is fully submerged in the sugar. If the jar is too full, don’t worry, keep the sugar in a separate jar or bag. Add it to the mixture in a couple of weeks after the sugar has liquefied.
Set the jar on top of a plate or small baking sheet in a cool part of your kitchen. Label the jar with the date started and the type of fruit you use. Your 100 day wait begins.
Fermentation and Observation
Over the next few weeks the sugar will begin to liquefy. If you have reserved sugar, add it back to the jar when there is room in the jar. Once 80% or so of the mixture is liquid, gently stir the mixture with a long sterilized spoon once a week or so to encourage the sugar at the bottom to liquefy. I like to submerge the fruit on top into the syrup while I’m stirring to prevent the tops of the fruit from getting moldy. You can also use fermentation weights to submerge the fruit under the liquid. I’m too lazy to do that, so I just stir the fruit occasionally. Take care to keep the fruit intact when you stir, and don’t add anything foreign to the mixture.
Carefully monitor the extract, small bubbles should emerge from the fruit as the sugar liquefies. The bubbles indicate that lacto-fermentation is happening. If there aren’t any bubbles after 4-6 weeks, chances are something went wrong. Toss this batch., it’s not worth the risk of consuming something contaminated. Burp the jar every couple of days depending on how active the mixture is so that pressure doesn’t build up in the jar. This is very important to release the carbon dioxide coming from the syrup so that the jar doesn’t explode. If you’re going to be away for a week, burp the jar, then, stick it in the fridge to slow down fermentation.
Sample the syrup occasionally with a sterilized spoon (only if there are bubbles coming from the fruit), and notice how the syrup evolves over time.
Notice the small white bubbles that indicate fermentation is occurring. These were very bubbly and active because they were kept out in warm summer weather.
The Final Beauty-Syrup
After 100 days, the syrup will be ready to strain into a clean and sterilized glass jar or bottle. Used in teas, cocktails, mocktails, marinades, and however else you want.
Optional Step: Make Plum Infused Liquor
You can leave the remaining fruit in the jar and add a bottle of vodka or four bottles of soju. Wait a month or so for the plums to infuse the alcohol. Strain and add to cocktails!