How to choose and cook plums?

Rest assured, we are not going to shake all the plum trees on the earth to describe what falls from them. What is the point of listing the ounces, the points, the touches, the suspicions, the flats which nuance each of their fruits? It seems that there are more than two thousand varieties (including 13 in France).

American plums, Chinese plums, Japanese plums, Damascus plums, cute plums, imperial plums, and even mirobolantes.

There are large ones, small ones, round ones, elongated ones, fleshy ones, wrinkled ones. Just woo the brunette and the blonde, that won’t be bad, or the quetsche and the mirabelle plum by showing gallantry towards the elders, the prune and the greengage. These four very French drupes display their full maturity until October.

The different varieties of plums and their season

The questche

Large oval plum, deep blue tending to purple and sweet flesh with a slightly accentuated yellow color. It is a late plum, produced in Alsace and Lorraine until October.

The mirabelle

This small golden plum is a table fruit whose orange-yellow flesh is rich in sweet and particularly delicate flavors. It is produced in the Vosges and especially in Lorraine, where the so-called Metz and Nancy varieties even benefit from a protected designation. It must be said that it is a small miracle, because the mirabelle plum only feels comfortable for one month to ripen, between mid-August and mid-September. So now is the time to take advantage of it.

The Greengage

Its green color sometimes has amber highlights and its flesh is firm and sweet. It comes mainly from Tarn-et-Garonne (Midi-Pyrénées) and remains the most cultivated variety in France. Its plum trees produce large, very tasty fruits. Further into the season, the stalls are stocked until the end of October with Bavay greengages, which have been picked in the North.

And the prune

Coming from the Ente plum, a purple variety with an elongated shape which descends from the Damascus plum tree, the Agen prune is a special case. Because this plum, so famous that it has a Protected Indication of Origin (IGP), is a dried fruit. The harvest takes place between August 25 and September 25: the drupes are picked ripe before being dehydrated in the sun or in the oven for around twenty hours, until reaching the residual humidity level of 21 to 22%, which guarantees good performance of their fruit qualities at room temperature. The bulk of prune production is found in the surrounding area of ​​Agen, but Agen is above all the name of the shipping town from where prune stocks once sailed to Bordeaux and the rest of the world. They were celebrated for their meaty flavor and long shelf life.

How many calories are in plums?

If calories are never just one piece of information among many others, it is always interesting to know where the foods we consume are located. For greengage, the counter displays 71.3 kcal / 100g; mirabelle plum 76.9 kcal / 100g; damson 57 kcal/100g; and prune 229 cal / 100g. As with all dehydrated fruits, prunes that have been dehydrated are therefore more caloric than fresh fruits which contain more water.

Choosing plums wisely

Suppleness without softness, this is the CV of a ripe plum. Avoid bruised, stained, or crushed fruit. Conversely, avoid plums that are hard like golf balls, or in this case, prefer them cooked rather than chewed.

Last info, sometimes some plums – not all varieties – are covered with a light white veil. Don’t run away from them though, this veil called bloom, made up of wax flakes, protects the fruit from the heat. If it is present, it is a good sign and a guarantee of freshness.

How to cook plums?

From rustic tarts to classic jams, as an accompaniment to roast meat, or four-hour cake, plums, whatever the variety, are suitable for many recipes. You can even mix them and slip them into a cocktail worthy of the best mixologists!

Easy to prepare, rinse them before cooking then open them in half to pit them. In the oven, the cooking time varies depending on the recipe but on average it takes 30 minutes for stewed fruits as desired. For cooking in a pan as an accompaniment to meat, in about 10 minutes, the plums are ready. And for the jam, approximately 25 minutes of cooking will be enough depending on the strength of the fire.

If plums are obviously sufficient in themselves, they also work wonders combined with other seasonal products: plums and peaches, plums and raspberries, plums and figs, plums and grapes, etc.