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You might also want to know: What is Chinese plum candy?
The Primary Ingredients of Preserved Plums
Main Ingredients
Preserved plums are made from the fruit bases of plums, apricots, peaches, and similar fruits, with the main ingredients being plums, peaches, apricots, and the like. The raw materials must meet the industry standards for preserved plum products (GH/T 1157-2021), ensuring they are fresh, plump, appropriately ripe, with a normal flavor profile, and free from mold, pests, diseases, and mechanical damage.
Plum fruits are known for their crisp texture and sour taste, categorizing them as high-acid, low-sugar fruits. Their organic acid content ranges between 3.0% to 6.5%, with a sugar content of about 1.0%, resulting in a sugar-to-acid ratio of approximately 0.2 to 0.3. This makes them unsuitable for fresh consumption, necessitating processing before they can be eaten.
The precursor to preserved plums is the plum embryo, primarily sourced from Huangmei plums. Huangmei plums, also known as sour plums, belong to the Rosaceae family and are native to China, predominantly found along the Yangtze River basin and in the southern and southwestern regions. They are most abundantly produced in provinces like Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian, and Zhejiang. The fruit ripens after the Qingming festival, making it one of the earliest maturing fruits of the year. With high yields, for instance, Chunhu Town in Zhejiang produces over 5,000 tons annually, earning the title of China's top Huangmei producing town. Guangzhou city alone produces around 4 million kilograms per year, ensuring ample supply for modern processing needs.
Auxiliary Ingredients
The auxiliary ingredients for preserved plums mainly include sugar, salt, licorice, food additives, etc., which also need to conform to the industry standards for preserved plums (GH/T 1157-2021). While the processing methods for preserved plums are broadly similar across different regions, the specific ingredients used can vary, leading to slight differences in taste. Advances in technology have led to the adoption of low-temperature, low-salt, and low-sugar production techniques, which minimize nutrient loss and water usage, making the process more environmentally friendly and healthier.
Sweeteners constitute a major category of food additives, with nearly 20 types currently used worldwide. The primary high-intensity sweeteners utilized in production include sodium saccharin, saccharin, aspartame, and others approved by national health departments. Recent years have seen the development of newer sweeteners like sucralose, neotame, and alitame. The search for alternative sweeteners is driven by the shortcomings of existing high-intensity sweeteners, leading to two main trends: the pursuit of natural sweeteners and the development of superior blended sweeteners. Due to the limitations of natural sweeteners, the development of blended sweeteners has been relatively rapid.
The Craft of Making Preserved Plums
The preserved plum industry in China is characterized by a mixture of large and small-scale producers, combining modernized production processes with traditional workshop methods, resulting in a wide variance in product quality. To address this, in 2007, Zhao Lichao and others researched quality evaluation methods for preserved plums with the goal of identifying the main factors affecting their quality. This research aimed to establish a set of production technical standards for preserved plums, laying the groundwork for improving product quality and standardizing industrial production. The study concluded that the quality evaluation of preserved plums should consist of both sensory assessment and physical-chemical indicator measurement. The quality of preserved plums is determined not only by physical-chemical indicators but also by four key sensory factors: flavor, flesh tenacity, texture, and color. By analyzing the correlation between these two aspects, the physical-chemical parameters for high-quality preserved plums were defined as follows: salt content of 20% to 30%, acidity greater than 7.0%, sugar content greater than 3.0%, and moisture content between 13% to 25%.
Traditional Preserved Plum Processing Method
Selection of Fruit: Choose large Huangmei plums with thick flesh, small pits, and no damage. Harvest them when they are about eighty percent ripe, then sort, wash, and drain to remove impurities.
Preparing the Fruit Base: For every 100kg of fresh fruit, 15-20kg of salt is needed. Layer the fruit and salt alternately in a clean container, with the top layer covered with salt. Stir the mixture once every 3-5 days, and typically, after 30-50 days of soaking, the fruit base is ready.
Drying the Fruit Base: Remove the fruit base from the container and either sun-dry or oven-dry it, turning regularly to ensure even drying. When it is about eighty percent dry, place it in a ventilated and dry area. After a few days, once the fruit base softens and its internal and external moisture levels equalize, it becomes a salty dried green plum base.
Desalting Process: Wash the salty dried green plum base with clean water, then soak in fresh water for about 6 hours to remove about half of the salt content. Drain off the water, then air-dry or sun-dry to remove about half of the moisture, creating a green plum base.
Preparing the Soaking Liquid: The soaking liquid for preserved plums is made by boiling and filtering a mixture of water, sweeteners, flavorings, and essences in certain proportions. Sweeteners commonly include white sugar, sodium saccharin, saccharin, and aspartame. Flavorings may consist of licorice, cinnamon, anise, salt, and chili powder, while essences might include plum essence, vanilla, and others. Each manufacturer may choose suitable sweeteners, seasonings, and fragrances according to their needs, creating their unique formula. The composition of the soaking liquid is a crucial factor in determining the taste of the preserved plums.
Soaking: Heat the plum soaking liquid to 60-80°C and pour it over the dry green plum bases in a vat, stirring regularly to ensure the bases evenly absorb the liquid. After soaking for about 12 hours, remove the fruit bases and air dry for 30-60 minutes before continuing the soaking process until they have absorbed all of the licorice soaking liquid.
Drying: After soaking, remove the fruit bases from the container and either sun-dry or oven-dry them, turning regularly to ensure even drying, resulting in the final preserved plums.
Derivative Products
Gourmet Plum Powder
In 2005, Zhang Shixun introduced a method for creating "Gourmet Plum Powder (Seedless Plum Powder)." The process begins by thoroughly washing fresh plums, then separating the flesh from the pit. The plum flesh is then mixed with salt in a 100:8 ratio, fermented in a brine to obtain pickled plum flesh. This is dried under temperatures below 100°C until its moisture content is between 10% and 15%, then crushed to produce salted plum powder. This powder is blended with sugar, licorice, citric acid, and mint essence in a 10:3:1:1:0.5 ratio to make the gourmet plum powder, which is then molded into the desired shapes. This efficient, labor-saving process allows for partial mechanization, ensuring food hygiene.
Plum Candy
In 2013, Ding Xuchu revealed a method for making "Coated Plum Candy," consisting of a plum core and a coating layer. The core is made from plum meat with appropriate amounts of essence and sour agents, while the coating includes maltitol and acacia gum. The production involves pressing, boiling, coating, polishing, dehydrating, aging, and packaging. The resulting candy has a pleasant taste and a smooth, shiny appearance.
Plum Tea
Beyond plum products, in 2012, Zhuang Huiping added ripe plum fruits to the traditional tea-making process. With a mix of 10% to 15% plum, 80% to 90% tea leaves, and 2% to 5% additives, she created plum tea known for promoting digestion, regulating the stomach, quenching thirst, and detoxifying.
Plum Effervescent Tablets
In 2012, Huang Wei and Liu Yuan developed plum effervescent tablets using a direct compression method. Additionally, plum juice beverages, plum-flavored drinks, and plum-flavored sweeteners have been successfully developed.
Plum Cola Effervescent Tablets
In 2008, Yu Xiaolin and others developed plum cola effervescent tablets that retain the active components of plums, offering a harmonious taste, abundant effervescence, and no visible insoluble substances when dissolved, resulting in a superior sensory quality.
Plum Slippery Chicken
Ingredients: 1 fresh chicken, 6 plums, 5 shallots, 1 tablespoon each of soy sauce, oyster sauce, and Shaoxing wine, and an appropriate amount of green onions, ginger, refined salt, sugar, and vegetable oil.
Method: Soak the plums in hot water for 30 minutes and add seasonings. Slice half of the green onions and cut the rest into sections, slice the ginger. Clean the chicken, blanch it briefly, then coat it with soy sauce and pan-fry until slightly golden. Heat oil and sauté the green onion segments, ginger slices, and shallots. Add the chicken, plums, oyster sauce, Shaoxing wine, salt, and sugar. After bringing to a boil, simmer until the chicken is thoroughly cooked. Slice the chicken, pour the sauce over it, and garnish with green onion slices.
Plum Spare Ribs
Plums, often used for their thirst-quenching properties, are combined with spare ribs and chicken legs to create a dish that's not only delicious but also helps with digestion and removing greasiness. The plum spare ribs feature a bright red color, a sweet and sour taste, and are especially suitable for summer consumption, being tasty without being greasy and nutritious.
Ingredients: 400 grams of spare ribs, 10 plums, star anise, ginger, sesame, spring onions, cooking oil, soy sauce, cooking wine, vinegar, rock sugar.
Method: 1. Clean the spare ribs, chop them into small pieces, and blanch them with ginger slices. After blanching, rinse off any foam and drain. Soak the plums in hot water for 10 minutes. 2. Heat a small amount of cooking oil, melt a few pieces of rock sugar over low heat until bubbly and dark brown, then add the spare ribs and stir-fry until colored. Coat the ribs evenly with the caramel, add ginger slices, star anise, cooking wine, and stir well. Then add the plum juice and continue to stir-fry. 3. Add enough hot water to cover the ribs, bring to a boil, and simmer for about half an hour. During simmering, add a little soy sauce and vinegar towards the end, and it's ready to serve once the sauce thickens.