Loiseau Posted August 8, 2010 Share Posted August 8, 2010 Not sure if this belongs in cooking or gardening - it sort of straddles both.This looks like a bumper year for fruit in my garden.One tree is laden with what look like damsons. It is a French, self-sown tree, and as the French never seem to have heard of damsons (prunes de damas) I am certain that it is not a damson as we know it. From sampling the fruit on the ground, they taste like rather sweeter damsons.But if you cook them, they develop a horrid bitter taste - even with copious amounts of sugar added.Has anybody worked out what you can do with these? I can't bear to waste them, but there will be a limit to how many raw ones I can eat. I should like to have incorporated them into a pud to serve up to friends coming tomorrow!Angela Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frederick Posted August 8, 2010 Share Posted August 8, 2010 http://www.cottagesmallholder.com/two-wild-plum-jam-recipes-38 There is always this ... There is a chemical plums give out when cooked very hot... thats the bitter taste . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoddy Posted August 8, 2010 Share Posted August 8, 2010 These sound similar to some we have. They do look like a damson although they are rounder and a little larger. Faced with a bumper crop we thought we'd try some jam from them. We just did a small amount to start with and my other half, who eats quite a bit of jam, pronounced it delicious so we made lots more.Hoddy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FairyNuff Posted August 8, 2010 Share Posted August 8, 2010 These sound like prunes de St Jean, small plums about the size of the yellow mirabelle. They're sometimes called cherry plums. We've made jam with them, and this year we've preserved some in alcohol, along the lines of sloe gin. We'll see how they turn out around Christmas time! [:D]FairyNuff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loiseau Posted August 9, 2010 Author Share Posted August 9, 2010 No, they're bigger than a mirabelle, FN.Frederick, that's interesting about them being bitter only when hot. I guess I have always thrown them away in disgust on first taste! I have waited to let today's batch cool down, and the bitter taste is not quite so pronounced - though it's still there. I sampled flesh separately from skin too; the bitterness seems to be in the former rather than the latter.I didn't risk it on my friends, in case they had to smile politely through something horrible. I made them choc mousse instead!Might try the jam recipe though - thanks for that.Angela Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Roy Posted August 11, 2010 Share Posted August 11, 2010 Could they be bullace? http://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/b/bullac86.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FairyNuff Posted August 13, 2010 Share Posted August 13, 2010 Could they be quetsches? They're apparently mostly found in north east France, Luxembourg and Germany.http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/QuetscheFairyNuffEdit: I posted this on the wrong thread [:$], so I've copied it here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.