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Plums are fruits of the genus Prunus (stone fruits). Plum may have been one of the first fruits grown by humans, along with olives, grapes, and figs.

  1. Plum trees grow on all continents except Antarctica. But most of all they are grown in temperate zones. The average lifespan of cultivated plums is 10-15 years.
  2. Most plum trees grow in gardens near residential areas.
  3. Flower buds on most cultivars sit on short spurs along with the shoots of the main branch. Each bud can contain one to five flowers, and often appear as dense flower clusters when the trees are in full bloom.
  4. The fruits have an average size of 2.5 to 7.5 cm in diameter; shape from spherical to oval. The flesh is hard and juicy. The fruit is smooth with a waxy surface. Skin color ranges from bluish-black to red, purple, green, or yellow.
  5. The most popular and most common is the “home plum”, which takes 90% of all plum tree plantings in the world.
  6. Like most fruits, plums are low in calories. There are approximately 46 calories in 100 grams of raw plums; and they consist of 87% water, 11% carbohydrates, 1% protein, and less than 1% fat.
  7. Plum is a good source of vitamin A, vitamin K, vitamin B (B1, B2, B3, B6, B9), and vitamin E.
  8. Minerals present in them include potassium, fluoride, phosphorus, magnesium, iron, calcium, and zinc. They are also loaded with fiber, sorbitol, and isatin.
  9. The antioxidant power of plums helps in the treatment of osteoporosis, obesity and slows the progression of Alzheimer’s disease.
  10. Plums also contain anthocyanin and quercetin, which are important in preventing the breakdown of brain cells.
  11. Plums have a low glycemic index, so consuming plums helps control blood sugar levels and reduces the risk of type 2 diabetes.
  12. Numerous studies have proven that eating plums helps prevent the appearance of cancer cells, strengthens the immune system, and prolongs youth.
  13. Plums are widely consumed as dessert fruits. Plum fruits range in flavor from sweet to tart. Compotes and preserves are prepared from plums. They are used for baking pastries.
  14. In the Balkans, the plum is converted into an alcoholic drink called Slivovica (Serbian: šljivovica). Šljivovica is the national drink of Serbia in domestic production, and the plum is the national fruit.
  15. “Plum wine” is popular in Japan, Korea, and is also produced in China. In central England, a similar alcoholic beverage known as the plum drum is also made from plums.
  16. Dried plums, without fermentation, are called prunes. These plums contain a high level of sugar, the quality of which depends on the drying method (in dehydrators or the sun) and the storage method.
  17. The plum is heavily involved in Chinese mythology. She is often depicted carved on jade, as the Chinese associate her with wisdom.

Cherry Plum is a relative of the plum, translated from Azerbaijani means “small plum” and “a wonderful variety of garden plums”. Cherry plum is widely used in cooking and medicine. It contains a considerable amount of nutrients, vitamins, and macronutrients. Why cherry plum is useful, and in what cases it is better to refuse its use – read right now.

  1. Cherry plum promotes recovery from inflammatory processes. The high content of vitamins in cherry plum helps to strengthen the immune system and helps the body fight viruses and bacteria.
  2. Cherry plum stimulates the activity of the stomach and duodenum and intestines while having a laxative effect. It is better to eat it on an empty stomach.
  3. Cherry plum contains potassium, which has a beneficial effect on the work of the heart.
  4. Cherry plum does not contain a lot of sugar, so diabetic patients can eat it.
  5. Due to the substances contained in cherry plum, excess fluid is not retained in the body, which means that swelling decreases.
  6. Cherry plum raises hemoglobin, raises blood pressure, and helps to strengthen blood vessels and normalize the functioning of the circulatory system.
  7. These berries are useful for diseases of the upper respiratory tract, for coughs and colds.
  8. Cherry plum perfectly cleanses the body of toxins, toxins, and poisons. It is especially recommended for people who live in contaminated areas.
  9. Cherry plum is an excellent component of any diet, as it contains little sugar.
  10. The use of cherry plum helps to normalize the nervous system, overcome depression, and helps with insomnia.
  11. It is not recommended to use cherry plum with increased acidity of gastric juice. Since the berries will irritate the mucous membrane even more.
  12. Cherry plum is contraindicated for people with peptic ulcers of the digestive organs.
  13. It is not recommended for people with intolerance to cherry plum, as poisoning and heartburn may occur.

Chutneys are a fine thing: they give cheese, meat, and savory bread that certain sweet and sour note. A great chutney can also be conjured up from plums. Today we will show you how to make your own plum chutney with a little ginger spiciness.

Plum cake, plum compote, plum jam: the variety is great when it comes to processing fresh plums. Try this fine plum chutney!

The mild sweetness of the ripe plums harmonizes wonderfully with chili, ginger, and onions. The chutney is also a hit as a lovely souvenir from your own kitchen.

Make plum chutney yourself: the ingredients

  • 150g shallots
  • 1 piece of ginger root (approx. 20 g)
  • 1 red chili pepper
  • 2 oranges (1 of them organic)
  • 3 anise stars
  • 500 grams of ripe plums
  • 50 grams of brown sugar
  • Salt
  • 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar (a little more if necessary)

Make plum chutney yourself: preparation

  1. Rinse the screw-top jars (for a total of 750 ml content) with the fitting lids with boiling water and drain them upside down on a kitchen towel. Peel shallots, halve, and cut into fine wedges. Ginger peel and finely chop.
  2. Cut the chili pepper lengthwise, deseed, rinse and cut crosswise into thin strips.
  3. Wash the organic orange in hot water, rub dry and peel half thinly with a vegetable peeler. Cut the orange zest crosswise into very fine strips.
  4. Halve both oranges, squeeze and measure out 200 ml of juice. Bring the orange juice to a boil in a saucepan with the shallots, ginger, chili, strips of orange peel, and anise stars. Cover and cook on low heat for 15 minutes.
  5. Meanwhile, wash the plums, drain, halve, stone, and cut into thin wedges.
  6. Add the plums and sugar to the shallots, bring to the boil again, and cook covered over low heat for another 10 minutes. Remove anise stars.
  7. Season the chutney with salt and vinegar and pour immediately into the prepared glasses. Seal, flip and let stand upside down for 5 minutes. Turn the glasses over again and let them cool down. Closed and stored in the dark, the chutney will keep for about 2 months.

Enjoy your meal!

Heat the butter (150 g) together with the sugar (150 g) in a saucepan (until the butter has melted), stir well several times, and allow to cool slightly.

Put egg yolks (3 pcs.) and flour (300 g. ) in a mixing bowl; Mix briefly with the blender. Add the butter-sugar mixture (and vanilla flavoring if needed) and mix with the mixer just until a crumbly dough is formed. Put 3/4 of the crumbs in a greased springform pan and press into a dough base with a spoon.

Spread the halved plums (550g.) close together (should not overlap) on the pastry base and cover with the remaining crumbles. possibly Sprinkle some sugar over the plums before they crumble if they are a bit sour. Bake at 180 degrees for 45-50 minutes. If necessary (in good time) cover the cake with aluminum foil if the crumbles are getting too brown.
Enjoy your meal!

Grandma’s plum and apple cake is fluffy and juicy and is ideal for using fallen fruit or fallen plums in autumn. Of course, you can also buy fresh plums and apples from the supermarket.

Ingredients for a springform pan

  • approx. 500g plums
  • approx. 500g apples
  • 250g sugar
  • 125g butter or margarine
  • 2 eggs
  • 250 g flour
  • 1/2 packet baking powder
  • 1/2 packet of vanilla sugar or vanilla paste as an alternative
  • 1/2 packet of whipped cream
  • 100g sour cream
  • Maybe some rum flavor

Preparation of the plum and apple cake

The preparation of the delicious plum and apple cake is as follows:

  1. Wash the apples and plums thoroughly. Then cut and stone the plums, making sure the halves just stay together. Simply peel the apples and cut them into small wedges.
  2. Beat the sugar together with the butter and vanilla sugar until fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and beat vigorously.
  3. Then mix flour and baking powder in a new bowl and add gradually. Stir in the sour cream and maybe add some rum flavoring if you like.
  4. Now spread the dough in a greased springform pan or on a greased baking sheet. Then put the fruit, in this case, the plums, and the apples, in the dough.
  5. So that not too much juice penetrates into the dough, you should sprinkle the dough with whipped cream before inserting the fruit.
  6. Now bake the cake at 180° with top and bottom heat for 60-90 minutes. After 60 minutes you can quickly do the first needle test between the fruits.
  7. Sprinkle with a little sugar or icing sugar immediately after baking and let the kitchen cool down in the tin.

Additional knowledge

For the apple pie, you can also consider the following.

  • The dough is very suitable for other types of fruit and berries, such as apples, pears, or berries.
  • Of course, the cake tastes wonderful with whipped cream
  • Preparation time approx. 30 minutes
  • Baking time approx. 1 hour 10 minutes

Plums are low in calories and very healthy. Because the nutritional values ​​​​of fresh plums are quite good and make the fruit a healthy snack for the summer.

Plums: calories and all nutritional values

Plums are one of the most popular summer fruits. The elongated, violet plums are ideal for preserving and for various dishes (see below). The calories and nutritional values ​​differ depending on whether the plums are fresh or dried.

Nutritional values ​​for fresh plums:
Calories: 46 calories
Protein: 0.7g
Fat: 0.28g
Carbohydrates: 11.42g
of which sugar: 9.92g
Fiber: 1.4g

Dried plums: nutritional table

Nutritional values ​​for dried plums:
Calories: 240 calories
Protein: 2.18g
Fat: 0.38g
Carbohydrates: 63.88g
of which sugar: 38.13g
Fiber: 7.1g
Plums have significantly fewer calories than, for example, grapes (68 kcal/100g) and also significantly less sugar (grapes: 15.4g/100g). This makes the plums very healthy.

At around 86 percent, plums have a higher water content than other types of fruit. You should take this into account when using it, for example when baking a plum cake. Here it can make sense to pre-bake the base, because the plums lose liquid and the cake base may not rise.

Effect of plums on health

In recent years, scientists have repeatedly examined plums and analyzed their effects on health.

Animal experiments in 2005 proved that dried plums are effective against osteoporosis. However, it is still unclear which ingredients are responsible for this (study).
In plums – especially in dried plums – there are larger amounts of sorbitol. This is the natural sugar alcohol in fructose, which can lead to digestive problems.
Plums contain the messenger substance serotonin, which is also known as the “happiness hormone”. It lifts the mood and ensures well-being.
Scientists have also detected the hormone ghrelin in plums, which is otherwise only produced by animals. It stimulates the appetite – also in humans (study).
In a fairly small study, scientists found that plum juice increased cognitive performance in rats. This effect did not occur with dried plums.

Instructions for cooking plum jam with lots of useful tips and delicious recipes for making plum jam yourself. Now make grandma’s plum jam yourself quickly and easily.

Almost nothing looks as good on bread, on pancakes, or in baked goods as tasty plum jam. When is it “pure”, when “normal” and what is the best way to prepare it? Plum jam is a small delicacy that stands out from conventional types of jam in its very own way.

The sticky-sweet plum puree is prepared differently, is much thicker than other “jams” and makes it not only wonderful on breakfast sandwiches, but also in baked goods, on pancakes, or on American-style pancakes.

Simply make plum jam yourself

But how exactly do you make a delicious porridge out of a few ordinary plums? The first trick is that the cooking time can be up to an hour at best. Of course, the plums melt much faster at the highest temperatures – but the aroma is lost in the process. Cooking it down quickly is not recommended for really good mush. So give yourself and your project time.

The basic recipe for the plum jam preparation

There are differences when making plum jam yourself. There is a “normal” and a “pure” plum jam and many more variations. However, since these usually only differ in different ingredients that are added or not, we leave them out.

The most well-known way of preparing plum jam is the “normal” way. With this, the fruits are first cored, extensively chopped up, and mixed well with sugar. The amount of sugar required is at least a quarter of the weight of the fruit used. In other words: If 500 grams of plums are to be boiled down, you should add at least 125 grams of sugar.

Even before the stove is turned on, the typical standard spices should be added: cinnamon and cloves. As an example calculation, with our already mentioned 500 grams of plums, it would be half a teaspoon each of cinnamon and cloves.

Interesting plum jam recipes

  • 478 recipes at chefkoch.de
  • Making plum jam in the oven
  • Prepare plum jam without sugar

Useful tips for cooking delicious plum jam

Incidentally, the puree will be more aromatic if you use more ripe or even overripe plums. However, the amount of sugar required is reduced here, since ripe plums have a much higher fructose content than normal ones. In order to avoid bitter mush, however, you should not completely avoid sugar. In any case, it should be one-fifth – based on the amount of fruit.

If you would like to try small, technical spice modifications, you can add a little vanilla. However, this taste is very peculiar and therefore really only recommended for fans of the silky sweet pod.

The so-called “pure” plum jam is a matter of taste. It is mainly known in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, but also has many friends in the rest of Germany. No spices are used in this one. Only the usual amount of sugar, already mentioned, is added.

Proper storage of plum jam

Storing plum jam is really easy. Once boiled, the delicious porridge is extremely stable and often keeps for several years without refrigeration. Slightly cooler storage, for example in the cellar, is definitely recommended. This benefits the aroma.

Of course, the preserving jars should be closed well and airtight. When stone pots are open, the surface should be covered with a cellophane cloth. To be on the safe side, this can be soaked in rum. Opened jars are best stored in the fridge and consumed quickly.

The special thing about plum jam is that it becomes even more aromatic and special in taste the longer it is stored. It is therefore advisable to store freshly canned mush for a few weeks. Of course, the plum jam can also be eaten directly.