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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] prune plums

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  • From: "Stephen Sadler" <Docshiva@Docshiva.org>
  • To: "'North American Fruit Explorers'" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] prune plums
  • Date: Tue, 16 Sep 2008 11:36:46 -0700

It may be regional or cultural.  I completely accept that you hadn’t before heard the word prune to describe a type of fresh plum.  I trust you realize there are things any one of us might not have heard of that are nonetheless true.  Here are some references:

 

Any kind of plum that can be dried without spoiling. (The Free Dictionary)

a plum dried or capable of drying without fermentation (Websters Dictionary)

Fresh plums that are marketed as "prunes" have an oval shape and a more easily removed pit. (Wikipedia)

1.

a variety of plum that dries without spoiling.

 

2.

such a plum when dried.

 

3.

any plum.

(Dictionary.com)

“Fresh Prune Postharvest Quality Maintenance” – a publication from the University of CA, Davis

Google yields 3,650 references to “fresh prune.”

 

Whether you can turn any plum into a prune is also a matter of linguistics, and although I consider some (the Italian type) dried plums to be prunes and the rest ‘dried plums,’  I don’t argue with anyone using either term.  It’s a matter of preference, not right or wrong.

 

You’re right that they can dry on, or under the tree – they may be the easiest fruit to dry, needing nothing more than some time outdoors. 

 

~ Stephen

 

 

From: nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Alan Haigh
Sent: Tuesday, September 16, 2008 2:07 AM
To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: [NAFEX] prune plums

 

I don't spend much time reading cook books although I do like to cook, but I've never heard of a plum being called a prune without having been dried.  Plums are sometimes reconstituted by being jarred in liquid after drying and in fact those were the most common prunes of my childhood.

 

It is very common to call plums that are traditionally used for drying "prune plums" and these, I believe, are always the oval, purple skinned European varieties typified by the Italian plum.  Other Euros not in this category are gages and I believe mirabelles.  Prune plums always have very high sugar and if conditions aren't too humid will actually dry out on the tree without rotting, not that I suggest this as a technique.  With a dehydraater I assume that you could turn any plum into some kind of prune.




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