Maesil extract

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

• 1½ pounds maesil (green plums)
• 1½ pounds white sugar
• 4 bottles of soju
• ½ cup gochujang

Directions

Prepare maesil

1. Remove all the stem ends from the maesil, and throw out any that are brown or blemished.
2. 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.
3. 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

1. 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)

1. Put the leftover maesil in a jar with 4 bottles of soju. Let it sit for 3 months.

3 months later

1. 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)

1. Pit the leftover maesil and cut up the remainder into small pieces.
2. Add ½ cup gochujang and mix well. Store in the fridge and serve as a side dish with rice.