"Drew Hamilton" <awh@awh.org> wrote in message

> I love umeboshi, and the sour taste.  The sourer the better!

Small plums in shape of cherry can be sourer and less salty, because they
are not ume"
boshi" tecnically. They are not dried, so that's less concentrated.

> However, I sort of wish they weren't so salty.

Me too.

>I have tried the
> 8% and 6% salt varieties at my local supermarket (usually I get
> the 10% or 13% from Daimaru),

In fact, 13% is already a modern recipe, reduced in salt, with additive.

Low-salt umeboshi

1kg  ume
100 g salt
1 cup 35 degree alcohol (to compensate the lack of salt)
100 g red shiso
10-20 g salt

I have failed that recipe (my fault, I forgot to get them out on sunny
days). My neighbours commented it : "Not enough salt, they would have rotten
anyway." and they gave me a jar of their home-made ones. The final product
must contain 20% of salt. I have politely asked the recipe, and lost it
quickly.

According to all recipes I have seen, if you reduce the salt, you need to
add another preservative. If it's home-made, it's alcohol, but they may
contain a stuff certainly classified as chemical weapon if they are made in
China and sold in your supermarket.

> Is the sourness directly tied to the salt content?

No, the plums are already extremely acid at the start because they are
unripe. I had not the time this year, but I have used those green plums to
make plum chutney, green
plum jam, green plum tart...The chutney was really great.

> That is, is
> the process that makes them salty the same process that makes them
> sour?

If I understand well what I've read, the umeboshi are not lacto-fermented
like kimchi or sauerkraut, so you don't have the young and sweet / old and
sour versions. It's just salt-preserved.

That doesn't mean the salt doesn't transform them. It's like salted-lemon
from North-Africa, after 3 weeks in the salt, the acidity has not much
evolved, but the taste is different.
So if you freezed or sterilized jars to preserve law-salt ume, they wouldn't
taste like the classical ones.

>Or is there some way to get nice sour umeboshi with less
> salt flavour to them?

Probably not.

There are non-salted "umeboshi", from China. Some are very acid, but taste
is completely different, and the additives often let an aftertaste. Well,
certainly all levels of quality exist. They are sold in markets between the
rotten kakis and dried medusas.

You can try to unsalt them. I put them in vinegared water with roasted
sardines. After 48 h, the sardines have taken  an umeboshi flavor and
absorbed the excess of salt. Then you need other people or cats to eat all
that fish.
Another recipe (I'd use an unsalted dashi):
Umekatsuo
Prepare a dashi (1/2 cup of shoyu, 1 ts sugar, 2 tbs mirin, 20 g dried
katsuo) and store 2 days. The next day, put 300g of umeboshi in 1 liter of
water a 60 degrees C, let them unsalt one night, drain them. Mix the ume and
dashi, store 3 days, returning the jar twice a day.

CC