plums

plums are drupes (stone fruits) related to peaches, cherries, apricots, nectarines, and almonds whose flesh is used to make brandy and pits are used to flavor liqueurs. Plum remains have been found around human settlements as far back as the Neolithic era. Hundreds of varieties across dozens of species exist in a range of colors such as purple, red, green, and yellow. All plums belong to the genus P. domestica), Japanese plums (P. salicina), native North American plums (P. nigra and others), and P. simonii, a Chinese hybrid of P. salicina and apricots. The diminutive myrobalan or cherry plum (P. cerasifera) is native to Europe and Asia. Gages, both green and yellow, are also plums, but are somewhat smaller and rounder than the oval varieties more commonly cultivated in Europe.

Plum species cross readily, but most plums are high in sugars and yield large amounts of alcohol when fermented. Plum jerkum, a nineteenth-century plum wine from England, was regarded as especially potent. Mirabelles are small yellowish plums used to make a particularly well-regarded French eau-de-vie. See mirabelle and eau-de-vie. The plum brandy perhaps best known on the United States, however, is eastern European slivovitz. See slivovitz. Rich, sweet, and astringent damson plums are often grown as hedgerows in the British Isles, where they are sometimes used to create a cordial similar to sloe gin. See sloe gin. The pits of plums may be used to make almond-scented noyaux. See crème de noyaux. Ume, the fruits steeped in shochu to make umeshu or Japanese plum wine, are Prunus mume, more closely related to apricots than to plums. See shochu.

See also Jelínek; quetsch; and schnapps.

Bennett, Jennifer. The Harrowsmith Book of Fruit Trees. Camden East, ON: Camden House, 1991.

“Crowquill’s Jottings.” Berrow’s Worcester Journal, October 17, 1891, 5.

Mirel, Elizabeth Post. Plum Crazy. New York: Clarkson Potter, 1973.

Spangenberg, Jorge E., Stefanie Jacomet, and Jörg Schibler. “Chemical Analyses of Organic Residues in Archaeological Pottery from Arbon Bleiche.” Journal of Archaeological Science 33, no. 1 (2006): 1–13.

By: Matthew Rowley