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Umeboshi Recipe: How to Make Japanese Salted Ume Plums at Home

By Updated 2 min read

Umeboshi are Japan’s legendary salt-fermented plums — a 1,000-year tradition yielding one of the most probiotic-rich, intensely flavored foods on earth. This complete guide covers the traditional salt-and-shiso method, fermentation science, sun-drying stage, troubleshooting, and how to use umeboshi far beyond rice balls.

At a glance

Umeboshi are Japanese ume (Prunus mume) packed in 15–18% salt for about a month, colored with red shiso and sun-dried. Traditional salt-pickled umeboshi contain 18.2 g salt per 100 g, so one plum has about 1.8 g. They are salted more than fermented and aren't probiotic. Never eat raw ume: unripe fruit contains cyanogenic compounds that salting breaks down.

  • Salt-pickled umeboshi: 18.2 g salt and 7,200 mg sodium per 100 g (MEXT).
  • One ~10 g umeboshi has about 1.8 g salt, roughly a third of the WHO daily limit.
  • Raw unripe ume contain cyanogenic compounds; salting breaks them down.
  • Red shiso pickling raised phenolic content about 13-fold in one study.
  • Wakayama's Minabe-Tanabe Ume System became an FAO heritage system in 2015.

Ferment profile

Origin
Japan (Wakayama is the best-known growing area)
Main microbes
Few – high salt limits microbial growth; mainly salt-tolerant species
Live cultures
No (cooked, baked or pasteurized)
Alcohol
None / trace

Umeboshi (梅干し, “dried ume”) are Japanese salted ume – a fruit, Prunus mume, usually called a plum but closer to an apricot. Firm early-summer ume are packed in salt and weighted until they sit in their own sour brine (umezu), often colored deep red with red shiso leaves, then dried in the summer sun for a few days. The result is intensely salty and sour, eaten in small amounts with rice – most famously in the middle of an onigiri.

Salted More Than Fermented

Umeboshi are often filed under fermented foods, but at 15–20% salt few microbes can grow; the sourness comes mainly from the fruit’s own acids, drawn out into the brine. They aren’t a probiotic food. What the long salting does change is the fruit’s chemistry:

  • Raw ume are not safe to eat. Unripe ume contain high levels of cyanogenic compounds (from amygdalin) and aren’t fit to eat as they are; processing them into umeboshi, umeshu or salted ume breaks these compounds down substantially, according to Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture (MAFF). Don’t taste the fruit before it’s salted, and keep raw ume away from children.
  • Red shiso adds more than color. In a 2024 study, ume pickled with red shiso had 13 times more phenolic compounds than ume pickled with salt alone, with rosmarinic acid forming during pickling (Suwannachot & Ogawa, 2024).

How Salty Are Umeboshi?

Very. Japan’s official food composition tables list traditional salt-pickled umeboshi at 18.2 g salt (7,200 mg sodium) per 100 g, and the milder “seasoned” type, usually sweetened, at 7.6 g salt (3,000 mg sodium) per 100 g (MEXT; MEXT). One traditional umeboshi of about 10 g therefore has roughly 1.8 g of salt – close to a third of the WHO’s 5 g daily limit. Eat them as a seasoning, not a snack, especially if you watch your blood pressure.

What About the Health Claims?

Ume have a long reputation in Japan for upset stomachs and fatigue. The research is limited:

  • H. pylori: in an observational study of 1,358 Japanese adults, eating more ume wasn’t linked to lower infection rates, though among infected volunteers the high-intake group had less stomach inflammation (Enomoto et al., 2010). In a pilot of 18 infected people who drank an ume juice concentrate twice daily for 12 weeks, the infection wasn’t cleared (Nakajima et al., 2006). Ume isn’t a treatment.
  • “Alkalizing”: food doesn’t change the pH of your blood, which the body keeps in a narrow range regardless of diet.

Where Umeboshi Come From

The best-known growing area is around Minabe and Tanabe in Wakayama Prefecture, where ume orchards on poor, stony slopes are kept alongside coppice forests that also provide a habitat for honeybees. FAO designated the Minabe-Tanabe Ume System a Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System in 2015 (FAO GIAHS).

Japan’s other salt- and bran-based pickles include nukazuke and sake-lees kasuzuke; for a salty seasoning with live koji enzymes, see shio koji, and for miso, our homemade miso guide.

Recipe: Homemade Umeboshi (Red Shiso)

Makes
About 1 kg ume (roughly 40–50 umeboshi)
Hands-on
60 min
Fermentation
3–4 weeks salting, then 3 days sun-drying
Salt
15–18% of the ume's weight (150–180 g per kg)
Temperature
Cool room temperature, out of direct sun, during salting
Difficulty
Moderate

Equipment

  • 3-litre glass jar, glazed crock or food-grade container
  • Clean freezer bag or plate that fits inside, as a drop lid
  • Weight about equal to the ume (e.g. water-filled bags)
  • Bamboo mat or rack for drying
  • Toothpick

Ingredients

  • 1 kg ume (firm, just turning yellow, unblemished)
  • 150–180 g coarse salt (15–18% of the ume's weight)
  • 2 tbsp shochu or vodka (optional, to wipe the ume and container)
  • 100–200 g red shiso leaves (optional; plus 20 g salt to rub them)

Method

  1. Rinse the ume, soak them in cold water for a few hours if they're green, and dry each one thoroughly. Remove the stem nub with a toothpick.
  2. Wipe the container (and the ume, if you like) with shochu or vodka. Layer ume and salt, ending with salt.
  3. Put the drop lid and a weight about equal to the ume on top. Brine (umezu) should cover the fruit within 2–4 days; then halve the weight.
  4. Keep in a cool, shaded place for 3–4 weeks. Remove any fruit that grows fuzzy mold; if mold spreads or the brine smells rotten, discard the batch.
  5. Optional shiso: rub the leaves with half the 20 g salt, squeeze out and discard the dark juice, repeat, then loosen the leaves in a ladle of umezu and add them to the jar for at least a week.
  6. In a spell of sunny weather (traditionally late July), lay the ume on a mat in full sun for 3 days, turning them daily and bringing them in at night.
  7. Store the dried umeboshi in a clean, closed jar, with or without the shiso and some umezu. Keep the rest of the umezu as a salty, sour seasoning.

Frequently asked questions

What are umeboshi?

Japanese ume fruit salted until they sit in their own brine, usually colored with red shiso, then sun-dried. They're very salty and sour and eaten in small amounts with rice.

Are umeboshi fermented?

Only a little. At 15–20% salt few microbes grow; the sourness comes mainly from the fruit's own acids. They're better described as salt-pickled, and aren't probiotic.

Can you eat raw ume?

No. Unripe ume contain cyanogenic compounds; Japan's Ministry of Agriculture advises against eating them raw. Salting into umeboshi breaks these compounds down.

How much salt is in one umeboshi?

A traditional salt-pickled umeboshi of about 10 g has around 1.8 g salt (720 mg sodium). Sweetened, seasoned umeboshi have less than half that.

Are umeboshi good for you?

Red shiso umeboshi are rich in phenolic compounds, but evidence for health benefits in people is limited – one observational study linked high ume intake with less stomach inflammation. The salt is the main thing to watch.

Can I make umeboshi with regular plums?

Not really – ume are a different species with much more acid and firmer flesh. Salted ordinary plums turn soft and lack the sourness.

How long do homemade umeboshi keep?

Traditional high-salt umeboshi are kept for years in closed jars at room temperature, mellowing with age. Sweetened low-salt versions should be refrigerated.

Sources

  1. Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (Japan). Natural toxins: cyanogenic compounds in unripe ume and loquat seeds. Link
  2. MEXT. Standard Tables of Food Composition in Japan: ume, umeboshi, salt-pickled (07022). Link
  3. MEXT. Standard Tables of Food Composition in Japan: ume, umeboshi, seasoned (07023). Link
  4. Suwannachot J, Ogawa Y (2024). Changes in polyphenolic compounds and antioxidant activity of Japanese pickled apricot with salted red perilla leaf during pickling and digestion process. Food Res Int 192:114752. Link
  5. Enomoto S et al. (2010). Inhibitory effects of Japanese apricot (Prunus mume; Ume) on Helicobacter pylori-related chronic gastritis. Eur J Clin Nutr 64(7):714–719. Link
  6. Nakajima S et al. (2006). Effect of the folk remedy, Bainiku-ekisu, a concentrate of Prunus mume juice, on Helicobacter pylori infection in humans. Helicobacter 11(6):589–591. Link
  7. FAO. Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems: Minabe-Tanabe Ume System, Japan. Link
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