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
- 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.
Hi Maangchi, thank you so much for sharing your recipe with us!
We bought some maesil to make maesil cheong last year, and it turned out so good that we ended up making three jars of it this year to share with family and friends!
One jar came out crystal clear and the other two was cloudy, but all three tasted delicious.
Do you know if the cloudy ones are safe? We had to remove a little bit of mold from one of the cloudy jars during the 2nd week, but there wasn’t any mold after that.
Just want to be sure so we don’t get anyone sick! Thank you!
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All look great and safe to eat! Congratulations!
Hi Maangchi! I’ve been using your recipe to make plum wine for the last 3 years and they’ve been WONDERFUL! However, this year my syrup started to develop tiny floaty white mould! *gasp*
Can I still salvage it or it’s down the drain???
“my syrup started to develop tiny floaty white mould.”
It happens when there’s not enough sugar. Don’t worry too much; you can just remove the mold and still use the syrup. But next time, make sure to use enough sugar to prevent mold from forming again. Good luck!
Hi maangchi. We have a few plum trees in our community garden in nyc. But many of the plums on one tree has a small worm inside. If we cut out the bad parts of the plums can we still make Maesil extract?
“If we cut out the bad parts of the plums can we still make Maesil extract?” Yes, it sounds great to me!
Hello Maangchi!
The other day I found some green plums and decided to make some maesil cheong with brown sugar. However, after 2 weeks I saw that it started to get fizzy with carbonation and lots of bubbles on top. I was wondering if it’s still edible and if I did something wrong. Please advise me. Thank you! <3
I used unripe regular plums to make umeshu and it worked well. We have a damsom plum tree so this year before they change colour I’ll pick them for maesil and umeshu. They’re horrible little sour things so I’m glad I can use them and I use a ton of maesil in cooking so it will save me some money, it’s so expensive in New Zealand
Interesting! You can turn your “horrible little sour things” into delicious stuff! I’m so curious about the result.
I have 16 damson plum trees. Do you think these plums would work for maesil? They are a purple/blue color with a yellow inside. I have hundreds of pounds of plums every year and I love plum extract. I bought some at hmart to try and it’s great for maesil-cha.
This was super easy. The wait seemed like forever but a good lesson in patience. I made all 3. As delicious as I expected. Question though, The Maesil-cha I had in Korea was much darker. Is it aged longer, use brown sugar, some other thing? Thanks for your great recipes and entertaining delivery.
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day6
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day 40
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Day 100
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Eventually after 100 days, you got your gorgeous maesilcheong! Congratulations!
I just finished 100 days for my maesil cheong. I had 10 pounds divided between 6 half gallon jars. Three of the jars were slightly carbonated, one was just okay and the last one seemed to be about perfect. I was wondering if the carbonated ones could still be used for cooking.
Thank you for all your lovely recipes.
Wow you made a lot! Where did you get all that maesil?
Yes, you can still use the carbonated ones for cooking. I think maybe there wasn’t enough sugar in those, that’s why when making maesil-cheong you need to add a lot of sugar.
Thank you for responding. I’m so excited. My maesilju is ready now and I’m going to make the jangajji.
I ordered the maesil from http://www.maesilhood.com.
Cool! Don’t drink too much, haha, joke! : )
So I tried out this recipe and I’m almost to my 100 days!!!!
The lid I used leaked too.
A lot of sugar settled at the bottom of my jar. And I open it to stir the bottom? Or will that interrupt the process?
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Hi Maangchi, I got some plums from H-mart today in Boston so today is the start of the project. The plums I got don’t look as plump and green as yours but I am optimistic! Check out the snow globe:
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Awesome! Keep updating us!
Started today with this recipe, wish me luck! I’m really excited how it will turn out. Is it possible to use this recipe with other fruits too?
Hi Maangchi!
I tried the syrup using unripe blood plums (Australian) and I think it worked! I did 2 separate jars, and it’s almost been 100 days. But while one jar looks perfect, the other has grown mould on top :(
Do you have any idea why this may have happened?
I have a cpl of ideas:
1. The lid leaked and I lost quite a bit of syrup so I added more sugar (after a cpl of weeks I think?)
2. The jar was a funny shape and so it was hard to make sure the Plums were completely covered in sugar all the time, and was hard to shake it regularly and properly due to the leaky lid.
Would love to hear your thoughts! And can’t wait to try the other jar that isn’t mouldy
Thank you Maangchi!
How long can it be stored in the fridge? Is there a expiration date?
can i use green unripe blood plums to make this?
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.