Using seasonal ume plums, make this sweet and fragrant homemade Ume Miso with just 3 ingredients! I save a few ume plums every year just to make this special blend of miso. It is so drool-worthy and requires minimal effort.
Everyone in my family looks forward to the ume season every year so I can make their favorite Umeshu (plum wine) and Ume Syrup. My recent obsession is this sweet and fragrant Ume Miso (梅味噌).
What is Ume Miso
As the name suggests, Ume Miso is a homemade miso blend made with miso of your choice, sugar, and unripe green ume. The process involves a quick fermentation but is as simple as it can get.
Ume (梅) or Japanese plums are sour when it’s unripe. Both Japanese and Korean grocery stores sell ume plums around early to mid-May. You can get green ume plums ($10 per pound) from Nicholas Family Farms. Please text or call Penny at 559-393-3009. Make sure to mention JOC22 for 10% off!
Ume yields an amazing fruity aroma and zestiness that is slowly released into the miso and sugar mixture. You can adjust the amount of sugar-based on your preference, but unripe ume is extremely tart and sour so the sugar will help to balance out the acidity.
There is sweetness from the sugar, saltiness and umami from the miso, and sourness from the green plums – all meld beautifully as the mixture sits for a month.
How to Use Ume Miso
There are countless ways to enjoy this brightly flavored condiment. The easiest one would be to dip some fresh cucumber or carrot sticks in the ume miso and enjoy as a snack.
If you make a big tub, you get to relish this special miso in many imaginable ways. Here are just some delicious suggestions:
- Grill/Simmer with meat, fish, tofu, or konnyaku – Marinate the protein of your choice with ume miso and chopped used ume in meat dishes. Pork and chicken can highlight the unique flavors.
- As a dip or topper to go with chilled tofu and vegetable sticks – A small dollop of punchy, savory ume miso can liven up vegetables and tofu. I’m also thinking of serving it with a platter of Japanese-style of crudités. Perfect for summer entertaining!
- Boosts a salad dressing – It makes a brilliant key enhancer for your dressing.
- As a dipping sauce for your soba or udon noodles – Mix a spoonful of the ume miso with dashi to make into a thin sauce for your soba or udon noodles.
- Flavoring onigiri rice ball – You can mix ume miso with rice and make onigiri, or fill the rice ball with ume miso. You can also slather on the rice ball and grill in a frying pan to make Yaki Onigiri.
Scroll down and see delicious Ume Miso recipes below!
What To Do With Ume in the Miso?
You can consume the ume plums used to make the miso. Remove seeds and chop up the flesh to eat or cook with other ingredients.
How to Make Ume Miso
Ingredients You’ll Need
- Ume plums (unripe, green ume)
- Miso (any miso you’d like to use; I’ll talk about my choice below)
- Sugar (I used organic cane sugar)
An Overview: Quick Steps
- Rinse ume plums, dry completely, remove the stem ends with a bamboo skewer.
- In a jar or plastic bag, layer the ingredients – miso, ume, sugar in that order.
- Let it sit in a cool, dark place for a month before consuming.
Which Type of Miso Should I Use?
There is no specific type of miso you have to use for this recipe. Be it white miso, awase miso, or red miso, just go with the one you enjoy most. A mixture would work fine too. If you are new to miso, read this post to get familiar with it.
I used Enjuku Koji Miso from Hikari Miso® as the base. I love the hint of sweetness that Koji Miso is known for. The more koji in the miso, the sweeter it tastes. I love making dressing and sauce with ume miso and the natural sweetness from koji complements the purpose.
Ume miso reminds me of sunshine in a jar, and it’s surprisingly easy to make at home. If you have enough ume plums to spare, don’t forget to make extra jars for gifting too.
Ume Miso Recipes You Want to Try!!
Other Delicious Ume Recipes
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Ume Miso
Ingredients
- 7 oz green ume plums (14 ume plums, 1 inch each)
- 7 oz miso (¼ cup plus 2 Tbsp; I used Hikari Miso Enjuku Koji Miso)
- ½ cup sugar (use at least 50% of the weight of ume/miso for good preservation; the typical ratio is 1:1:1 for ume miso)
Instructions
- Gather all the ingredients. Rinse the jar thoroughly with soap and hot water and wipe with a clean towel. While the jar is still hot, pour boiling water inside and shake to clean it, then drain. Air dry until completely dry. Dampen a clean towel with shochu or vodka that‘s at least 35% ABV (alcohol by volume) or 70 proof. Then, wipe the inside of the jar with it.
- Wash 7 oz green ume plums and immediately dry them thoroughly.
- Remove the stem ends from the plums with a bamboo skewer or toothpick. Discard any plums with brown or blemished spots.
- Now, layer the ingredients into the clean jar. First, add a bit of the 7 oz miso to cover the bottom of the jar. Then, add a few of the ume plums in a single layer.
- Next, add some of the ½ cup sugar to cover the plums, followed by another layer of miso. Repeat the layers of ume plums, sugar, and miso until you‘ve used all the plums and sugar. Tip: the last layer of plums should be completely covered with miso/sugar.
- Seal and write the date on the jar. Store it in a cool, dark place (but not in the refrigerator) to ferment for one month. Once in a while, shake and rotate the jar to make sure the plums are covered with the miso/sugar mixture so the plums won‘t go bad.
To Store
- Option 1: After one month, you can mix it with a clean spoon and store it in the refrigerator for up to a year. The flavor is mature at 2–3 months after storing it in the refrigerator, but you can start using it as soon as you finish fermenting it for a month. You can eat the ume itself, or remove the seed and cut up the flesh to use in recipes like Ume Miso Chicken or Ume Miso Dressing. Option 2: After one month, you can remove the seeds from all the ume plums, chop up the ume flesh into small pieces, put them back into the ume miso, and boil the mixture on low heat for several minutes (to kill any bacteria) before storing it in a new clean jar.
I have just finished putting two batches up. How do you wait for a month??? LOL I can’t wait!
Hello, Victoria! Yes! It’s quite exciting! Let’s start counting down the days! 😃
We hope you like the flavor as much as we do!
Thank you for trying Nami’s recipe!
Hi! I don’t have alcohol to wipe my jar. Do you think I could use vinegar?
Hello, Maggie. Thank you for trying Nami’s recipe.
Instead of vinegar, please follow the instructions on this page on “How to Sterilize the Jars” or boil the jar in water for 10 minutes.
https://www.justonecookbook.com/plum-jam/
We hope this helps!
I made the ume miso as directed and waited about 40 days. I just took out some plums to make ume shiso onigiri as I have shiso growing in my garden, but my ume is hard. Is it supposed to be hard? I kept hoping that it would get soft like store-bought umeboshi, but its still hard and green and a little shriveled up. Did I leave it in there too long? After 30 days of occasional mixing, I put the whole jar in the refrigerator and am just getting around to using it.
Can I just jar the ume from the ume miso.? Too lazy to seed and cut up.
Hi Janice, you mean, you will take out the spent ume and keep them in a new jar? I recommend using it very soon because it will go bad after leaving the high sugar/salt environment… You can’t keep it for a long time.
Do you think I can dry it like umeboshi? Or will it spoil.
I made garlic miso with the ume miso and cooked it with my nasubi. Delicious.
Thank you for the information.
Janice
Hi Janice! Thank you very much for trying Nami’s recipe!
We have never dried this Ume after making Ume Miso. Instead, Nami made Ume miso and Shiso Onigiri.🙂
https://www.justonecookbook.com/ume-miso-and-shiso-onigiri/
Hello! This ume miso looks delicious. I have a question: when you say “start eating from 2-3 months”, do you mean 2-3 months after storing in the refrigerator? Or after making the ume miso? Thank you.
Hi Ana! Thanks for asking the question! I meant 2-3 months after storing in the refrigerator, but you can start using it after 1 month of fermentation but the flavor is the best around 2-3 months after keeping in the fridge. I updated the sentence in the recipe.
Hi. Is it normal to have white mold?
Hi Julie! Thank you very much for reading Nami’s post!
Yes. White mold is ok, and you can carefully remove it with a clean spoon.
We hope this helps!
I have a question! Your recipe says to start eating from 2-3 months. Does this mean we shouldn’t eat it until it sits in the fridge for at least another month or two, after the first month of fermenting outside the fridge?
Hi Lion! Thank you very much for reading Nami’s post and trying her recipe!
The recipe shows Nami’s recommendation, but if your Ume Miso already has a good flavor and tastes good, of course, you can enjoy them earlier.
We hope this helps!
Hi Nami,
Can I used store bought preserved ume for this, or even the ume that was ferment during ume syrup making? The fresh green plums are hard to get.
Rebecca
Hi Rebecca! Thank you very much for reading Nami’s post!
Preserved Ume or Ume from Ume Syrup would not work for this recipe. However, it would make Miso taste Ume without marinading. You can mince them and mix them with Miso to get a similar flavor as this recipe.
We hope this helps!
Hi Nami,
It’s been about two weeks since I made this. I made it in a mason jar and I noticed that there are a lot of bubbles forming inside the jar. The bubbles push the ume upwards (so they are no longer submerged in the mixture) and build up pressure inside the jar (which I release daily by opening each jar). I just wanted to ask – is this normal? I can smell some alcohol, which I assume is normal as umeshu is made like this (without the miso, of course!)
Hi Crystal! Thank you very much for trying Nami’s recipe!
Yes, the bubbles forming sometimes occur during the process. It could be from using ripen plum or from the condition of the Miso.
Please mix slowly and submerge the Ume and move them to a lower room temperature area.
If it continues to bubble up and doesn’t come down, You can take them out and simmer to stop the fermentation and put them in the jar in the fridge.
We hope this helps!
Would it be a bad idea to let the mixture keep fermenting and just mix every day?
Hi Crystal, It’s ok to keep fermenting and mix them every day! It would make Miso tasty. What you have to see is that it would not turn into a strong alcohol smell Miso. And not to overflow from the jar during the fermentation.
So, keep an eye on it and stop the fermenting at the right timing (when Ume Miso smells good).
We hope this helps!
Hi Nami. Thanks for this new recipe!
I can’t wait to try this with the ume growing on our trees. It might be worth noting the # of plums don’t change as you scale the recipe (for those who don’t use/have a scale and may not notice).
Hi Rumi, Wow! Homegrown Ume! That is awesome! 🤩
Thank you very much for reading Nami’s post and for your kind feedback!
I’m at the end of 31 days and wonder about option 2. How long and what heat would you cook/use for the miso and chopped ume?
Also, the recipe links for ume miso chicken, dressing and the third seem broken. Thanks!
Hi Rumi! This process is to kill any bacteria, so bring it to boil slowly on low heat (if you use high heat, it will splatter) and let it boil for several minutes. Sorry the links were not working when you saw as these recipes just published (rice ball will be next week).
Is it OK to open the jar and stir it manually during the 31 day wait period? Or should it be kept closed the entire time?
Hi Dan, You can open the jar and stir it few times, but please use clean and dry spoons, etc.
Thank you for trying Nami’s recipe!
The area I stay is very hot. Can I put this in the fridge instead?
Hi HL, Thank you very much for reading Nami’s post!
If you put this in the fridge, this would not work due to the lower temperature. So instead, we recommend wrapping them with a cloth or paper bags and finding a place in your living space and store them.
We hope this helps!
Naomi, I made this prior to reading this message. I have stored my miso mud in the refrigerator from the beginning. My syrup is very runny, and it has a hint of bitterness from the seed. I intend to use the solution, but am wondering if this is similar to the final results if I had not refrigerated it.
Hi Grace! Thank you very much for trying Nami’s recipe!
Yes. The final result of Ume Miso is it depends on the Ume quality and would be runny side if the mixture extracted a lot of moister from Ume, and it is normal.
In your case, your Ume was a perfect size Ume initially, had a lot of moister, and worked well even inside the refrigerator.
I am not sure how long you kept it in the refrigerator, but if the Ume miso already had a good flavor of Ume and want to avoid getting a bitter taste, you can remove the Ume now.
If you would like to make a dressing with this Ume Miso, here is the recipe Nami had posted: https://www.justonecookbook.com/ume-miso-dressing/
We hope this is helpful.🙂
Nami, can other types of unripe plum be used in this recipe?
Hi Karen, Thank you very much for reading Nami’s post!
Yes! It should work!😉
thanks, Nami.
looking forward to trying this.
hahaha, 31 days 10 minutes!!
i love it!! 🙂
Hi Jeff! We hope you enjoy this delicious Ume miso soon!☺️
Thank you very much for reading Nami’s post!
Please, at what point do you put in the miso?
Andy
Hi Andy! Thank you very much for trying Nami’s recipe!
Please add the single layer of miso at step 4, followed by sugar. Repeat this process until you’re done with the plums and sugar.🙂
We hope this helps!