Smoked plum is the smoked fruit of Prunus mume, used in East Asian cuisine and medicine. It is called wūméi () in Mandarin Chinese, omae () in Korean, ubai (烏梅; うばい) in Japanese, and Ô mai in Vietnamese.
Overview
Smoked plums, matte black to dark brown, with a rugged surface, have a unique flavor with a sour taste.
The fruit is spherical or oblate, around long and in diameter.
The surface is wrinkled, with the round stem-end underside.
The fruit kernel is hard, olate, yellowish brown, long, wide, and thick, with a dotted surface.
The seed is flat obloid and light yellow.
Production
Unripe plums are picked in early summer, smoked, and dried at .
Use
Cuisine
In China, smoked plums are used to make
suānméitāng, a sour plum drink.
In Korea, smoked plums are used to make traditional teas and drinks such as omae-cha (smoked plum tea) and jeho-tang (medicinal summer drink).
Medicine
Latin (pharmaceutical) name for smoked plums is
Mume Fructus.
In Traditional Korean medicine, smoked plums are considered conductant for the liver channel, spleen channel, lung channel, and large intestine channel.
Dyeing
In Japan, the extract of smoked plums (ubai) is used as a mordant for the natural red dye derived from safflower (benibana).
See also
