Soaked plums - a recipe for an unusual preparation for the winter. How to soak plums according to an old recipe.

To prepare the recipe we need:

— Plum (the “Hungarian” plum variety is best suited for this recipe) — 50 kg,

— Water -0.8 liters,

– Sugar – 1 kg.,

– Salt – 400 – 500 grams,

– Malt – 500 grams,

— Mustard powder – 50-70 grams.

— Fragrant herbs (mint, black currant, cherry leaves, you can also add oregano, celery or parsnip)

How to make pickled plums - step by step.

First, let's prepare the container. Pickled plums in an oak barrel will, of course, taste better, but if you don’t have one, you can get by with any other container for soaking. Any large ceramic, glass, or enamel bowl is suitable for this recipe (not aluminum, to avoid oxidation).

The plums you plan to use for this recipe must be carefully selected. Rotten, damaged and burst fruits must be mercilessly discarded.

Then, wash the sorted plums thoroughly under running water.

Place the plum fruits in a container for soaking, sprinkling them with fragrant herbs to your liking.

Then, you can prepare the marinade filling itself. Pour water into a separate pan, dissolve the sugar in it according to the recipe.

Then, also dissolve the salt, malt and dry mustard.

This mixture must be boiled until the ingredients are completely dissolved.

Pour the resulting hot mixture over the plums.

And now I’ll tell you a few of my little secrets. If you don’t have malt, you can easily replace it with rye flour. And instead of sugar, I often add honey. True, I increase its amount by 40%, because the sugar content of honey is lower than that of sugar. But honey will give the finished plums a very interesting and pleasant honey taste and aroma.

After the solution has already been poured into the barrel with plums, you need to put a cotton napkin on top, and put a circle (made of wood or plastic) and pressure on it. With correct pressure applied, about 4 centimeters of brine should protrude above the circle.

So, plums need to be kept for 6-8 days at an air temperature of 18-20°C. This is necessary for the fermentation process to start. Then, the barrel needs to be taken out to a cold place. After a month, the plums can be eaten.

I think that if you prepare soaked plums according to this old recipe, then in winter, when you open the barrel, you will not regret the effort. After all, they can be eaten as an independent dish, or they can be added to various salads. The brine turns out so tasty that you can drink it instead of compote or kvass.