Maesil extract (Maesil-cheong) is used widely in traditional Korean cuisine as a sweetener. It’s made from maesil (aka green plums) and makes many dishes much more delicious than if you just used sugar. The result is more flavorful, fragrant, fresh, and complex. Maesil is also known to be really good for you, and Koreans believe preparing food and tea with maesil has many health benefits.
Peak season for maesil is May and June, and grocery stores in Korea are full of beautiful, fresh maesil and large jars to make maesil-cheong in. Here in the USA, Korean grocery stores also sell maesil at this time of year, although they are a lot more expensive here.
After making maesil-cheong, you can use the leftover maesil to make a traditional Korean alcohol called maesilju. And then once that’s done, you can use the leftovers to make a boozy pickle called maesil-jangajji. So with one box of maesil you can make three things. Me and my friends used to start making maesil-cheong in May-June, which means we could share maesilju with friends and family at Christmastime. Making maesil-cheong was one of our annual projects and we were always excited when the maesil-cheong was ready and it was only a few months more until we got the booze. The pickled maesil contains alcohol, so you should eat small amount and of course no children should eat it.
You may be wondering if you can make maesilju (maesil liquor) and maesil-jangajji (maesil pickles) directly from fresh maesil. Yes you can! Put fresh maesil in a jar and fill it up with soju and keep it in a cool place in your house for 1 year, then you will get nice flavorful unsweet maesilju.
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare maesil
- Remove all the stem ends from the maesil, and throw out any that are brown or blemished.
- Wash and dry well. Save half a cup of sugar for later, and mix the rest with the maesil, in a bowl. Add to a 7 cup glass jar.
- Let sit for 6 days, and then mix it well by turning it upside down a few times. Let it sit in a cool dry place for 94 days more, for a grand total of 100 days since you started.
100 days later
- Separate the maesil from the extract using a strainer. Put the extract in a jar and store it in the fridge.
Make maesilju (Maesil liquor)
- Put the leftover maesil in a jar with 4 bottles of soju. Let it sit for 3 months.
3 months later
- Separate the maesil from the maesilju using a strainer. Put the maesilju in a jar and store it in the fridge.
Make maesil-jangajji (Maesil pickles)
- Pit the leftover maesil and cut up the remainder into small pieces.
- Add ½ cup gochujang and mix well. Store in the fridge and serve as a side dish with rice.
Posted on Saturday, May 7th, 2016 at 6:34 pm.
Last updated on December 31, 2017.
Tagged: 매실 장아찌, 매실주, 매실청, green plum recipe, green plum sweeter, Japanese plum sweetener, Korean cooking, Korean cuisine, korean food, maaesil tea syrup, maesilcha, Maesilcheong, maesilchung, maesiljoo, maesilju, plum wine, Prunus mume, ume recipe, umeshu, vegan food, vegetarian food
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Just started my maesil-cheong today! can’t wait for it to be ready!
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Wow it looks good! I’m sure the sugar is melted by now, and your maesil are soaking in a sweet solution!
After i have made the Maesil-cheong, can i put vinegar into leftover maesil and make maesil vinegar? How can i make it?
Hey Maangchi,
Do I need to open the container the Maesil is fermenting in for 100 day and the Maesil-ju? Or do I just leave the container while checking it and flipping it once in a while…? Thanks!
Nevermind! I missed the annotation that said “Leave lid open to let gas leak out” xD
Hi Maangchi, i started my maesil cheong a few weeks ago and it seems to be fermenting and getting fizzy. Is that ok? It seems like it will turn into alcohol if I let it keep going like this…
Does it smell like alcohol? If not, it’s ok. If so, maybe you didn’t add enough sugar.
Yeah, I think it does smell like alcohol. Should I throw it out, or will it turn into plum wine??
I would add some soju and make maesilju! https://www.maangchi.com/ingredient/soju
It actually turned out ok, and once I took out the syrup after 100 days I made the maesilju! It’s really delicious.
In fact, today I am taking some over to enter it in the San Diego County Fair! Wish me luck! :)
Hi Maangchi, unfortunately mine smells like alcohol too! I think maybe there wasn’t enough sugar? I feel so bad throwing it out. Is there any way to save it? :*(
Hi Maangchi. Do you know if you can make this recipe using new apples before they get too big?
If you want to try this with apples you should try crabapples or hard unripe apples anything else would turn to mush.
Hi, Maangchi. Thanks for sharing all these fermentation recipes and projects with us, I find them really interesting. This week, I’m planning to visit Koreatown in London to see if I find these maesil. Has anyone finde them in the UK so far?
Hi! I just started a batch with some maesil from the local farmer’s market. I had seen it there for while, and always wondered what to do with it so thank you for posting this video! I used a lid with a fermentation airlock (so gasses can get out but not in), as I had one already so I hope that will work.
Question: What do you do with the leftover blemished fruit? I have about five little leftovers.
You are making maesil extract! That’s great! “What do you do with the leftover blemished fruit?” I throw them away.
Hi Maangchi, I’m excited to try this! Can I use brown sugar instead of white sugar?
Yes, some people use brown sugar. It will work well, too.
Maangchi, do the jangajji ferment at room temperature for the week?
No, I keep it in the fridge.
Hi Maangchi! Can I ask if you can make fruit tea syrup just like how you did for maesil-cheong? I thought of replacing maesil with lemons and berries. Thank you! :)
I will! Thank you!
Hi, I have two questions:
1) Can I use ripened/red apricot instead of green ? *the only kind available in my country :)*
2) is the syrup alcoholic (Aka can my children drink from it) ?
Thanks!
I don’t know if you can replace maesil with ripened apricot. https://www.maangchi.com/ingredient/maesil Maesilcheong is not alcoholic.
Hi, Maangchi! If it’s ok to ask this, do you think I can sub out white sugar for agave syrup? I’m diabetic, and agave syrup had a low glycemic impact. I really want to make these green plum recipes!
I can’t give you a good answer because I have never used agave syrup in my maesilcheong. But if I were you, I would try it out. Just in case, keep it in the fridge all the time. Let me know how it turns out.
The goal of the sugar is to extract the liquid from the plum by osmosis and then pickling the plum in the syrup made of its own juices. Therefore no agave syrup cannot be used since it does not have the osmotic properties of sugar or salt. Sorry some things just need sugar.