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| There are over 2,000 varieties of plum, ripening at different times throughout summer and autumn, although only a dozen or so are available in the shops. Japanese varieties are large, round and juicy; they can be purplish-red with orange flesh, or orangey-yellow with yellow flesh. On the whole, dark-coloured plums have bitter skins, while the red and yellow varieties tend to be sweeter. Most dessert plums can be cooked as well as eaten raw. |
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Dessert Plums
- Denniston's Superb An early variety of plum, with medium-size green fruits flushed with red. These plums have an excellent, sweet flavour.
- Gaviota These large round plums have yellow skins deeply tinged with scarlet, and sweet, juicy, red flesh. They are best eaten raw.
- Marjorie's Seedling These small purple plums with a green flush have bitter skins and sweet, green, almost translucent flesh. They are good for eating and cooking.
- Santa Rosa and Burbank Large and round, with bright red skins, these two North American varieties of plum are mainly grown in California. They have juicy, deep yellow flesh and a pleasantly tart flavour, which makes them good for both cooking and eating.
- Victoria The most prolific of all dessert plums, Victorias were first cultivated in 1840 from a stray seedling found in Sussex, England. Since then, these large oval fruits with yellow skins, flushed with scarlet, and sweet, juicy flesh have become ubiquitous. They are good for bottling and canning, stewing or eating raw.
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Cooking Plums
- Beach plums These small plums grow wild along the Atlantic coast of North America, especially near Cape Cod. They have dark purplish-black skins and tart flesh which makes them unsuitable for eating raw, but they make excellent jams and jellies.
- Cherry plums or mirabelles These very small wild plums are round and grow on long stalks like cherries. They have black, red or yellow skins, which can taste rather bitter, but all have sweet, juicy flesh. These plums can be eaten raw, but are best stewed or baked, or made into jams, sauces and jellies.
- Golden mirabelles These plums are delicious in tarts and souffles, and are also made into a plum eau-de-vie, called mirabelle.
- Czar Large This species is a rather acidic dark blue-black plums with golden flesh, these can be eaten raw, but are more usually used for cooking. They are best eaten straight from the tree.
- Quetsch Also known as svetsch or Zwetschen, these small purplish-black plums have a beautiful bloom. Although their flesh is sweet, they are seldom eaten raw, but are used in Eastern Europe to make plum breads and pflaumenkuchen, yeast dough topped with purple plums. Quetsch plums are also used for making slivovitz and other plum brandies.
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Other varieties of note
Angelino, Autumn Rose, Avalon, Circiela Queen Rose, Reeves Seedling, Stanley and Sungold |
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