Make Cranberry Sauce Fresh and Pickled With Japanese Plums
The phrase “add to everything” is often found in culinary publications, but in fact, there are many ingredients that instantly transform a dish and make it the best version of itself. Ingredients usually contain umami, acid, or a combination of both. They often round off the flavor profile or smooth out unpleasant or aggressive aromas. Umeboshi – Japanese salted and pickled plum – is one such ingredient.
You can buy plums (which actually look more like an apricot) whole or as a paste. I like the pasta as it is easy to spread and add to things. I mix it in cranberry sauce and it’s good. Unlike other ingredients that you have to add to everything, umeboshi paste does not have a meaty, fried flavor. It is savory but salty, not fried. It is also quite sour and salty. It’s very daring in and of itself, but when mixed with a batch of … well … whatever, it brings a slight pungent salinity.
The cranberry sauce isn’t devoid of flavor, but it’s the salinity of the umeboshi that makes it shine here. It reels in any sugary qualities and makes the flavor of the raspberry condiment more interesting . You cannot say that something unusual was added, not quite right. Instead, you end up with a slightly spicier and more intriguing sauce. A tablespoon of a “regular” batch of cranberry sauce (made with 12 ounces of fresh berries) will give your sauce a light, salty flavor – like berries that come from the ocean, not freshwater swamps – but two will make it pleasantly savory. … Just prepare the sauce as usual, let it cool slightly, add the pasta, stir, taste and add a little more if you like.