What is the difference between plum and prune? This question interests many. After reading the article, you will know the answer to it.
In winter and spring, when there are practically no fresh fruits, it's time to think of prunes. Sometimes a doctor may recommend taking this product even in the summer. But why use it when eating fresh plums? Many believe that prunes and plums are one and the same. However, this is not quite true. Now we will understand this issue.
Prunes and plums: what is the difference?
Prunes and plums differ among themselves not only in that one of these products is a fresh fruit, and the other is dried. The difference here is much more significant. The fact is that prunes may not be made from every grade of plum. In addition, special technologies are used for its preparation. And therefore, we can safely say that prunes are not just dried plums. This is a special product that is distinguished by its taste and effect on the human body.
In order to make it more clear how plums differ from prunes, we consider these two products separately.
Plum
This fruit from the pink family began to be grown in the Caucasus and Asia Minor in ancient times. And only about four centuries ago, plum began to gain popularity in other countries, including Russia. The plant has many varieties, depending on which the size of the fruit, its color, taste and even vitamin composition changes.
Plum is eaten both raw and in the form of jam, stewed fruit, jelly and other desserts. In some cuisines, it is added to meat and fish dishes, giving them a special piquancy. Many people appreciate wine and alcohol tincture on plums. In addition to fruits in folk medicine, there are recipes for making drinks from the leaves of this tree. Tea made from fresh or dried leaves and twigs has calming and restorative properties.
Useful properties of plums
The difference between plums and prunes is the usefulness of each product. Plum is useful for those who suffer from cardiovascular diseases and disorders of the gastrointestinal tract. Due to its rich vitamin composition, the fruit should be included in its menu at least twice a week during the harvest period. Ripe fruits contain iron, copper, potassium, zinc, folic acid, vitamins A, P, E and other useful substances.
The ability of plums to affect the functioning of the cardiovascular system is due to the high content of rutin in it. This substance regulates blood pressure and increases vascular tone. Since rutin is resistant to high temperatures, plum jam can be used to treat cardiovascular diseases no less effective than fresh fruits. The highest content of this substance is noted in the plum peel, therefore, when preparing jam, it is important not to peel off, and in raw form, use the whole plum, removing only the bone.
Many people know about the ability of plums to have a laxative effect. Due to this property, it is successfully used to treat constipation. Also, for this ability, plum fell in love with those who seek to lose weight or maintain a figure. Due to its rich vitamin composition, low calorie content, the ability to cleanse the intestines and remove excess fluid from the body, plum should be included in the diet of every person who cares about his figure.
The high vitamin A content makes the fruit a healthy product for people with gout and rheumatic fever. And plum is used as a sedative. It is enough to consume a few ripe fruits at night and during the day to avoid insomnia and other sleep disorders.
Contraindications
Despite the fact that plum is a very useful organic product, there are also contraindications to its use. It is not recommended to give plums to children under 1 year old, in whom the gastrointestinal tract is not yet fully strengthened. A ban on the use of plums by nursing mothers is also imposed.
People with gastric and duodenal ulcers should also not consume plums without the permission of a doctor. The increased acidity of the stomach is another reason to refuse plums.
Prunes
What is the difference between plum and prune? Now we will understand this issue. It is possible to note higher indicators of the beneficial properties of prunes as opposed to fresh plums. This is explained only by the fact that prunes are a more concentrated product, devoid of moisture. This means that 100 grams of fruit will have more nutrients and vitamins than 100 grams of plum.
The taste of prunes makes it a favorite treat for children and adults. A rich vitamin and mineral composition allows you to include this product in your menu as often as possible. Prunes contain in large quantities iron, potassium, magnesium, zinc, chromium, manganese, phosphorus, vitamins A, B, C, E and other useful substances. Due to its composition, it is able to improve the general well-being of a person, to positively affect the performance of the whole organism.
Prunes, like fresh plums, are prescribed for cardiovascular diseases and disorders of the gastrointestinal tract. This product is perfect for losing weight if you replace them with the usual sweets in the diet. Dried fruit also affects cancer. It is proved that it is prunes that can prevent the development of oncology, and in the presence of a disease, it can fight damaged cells.
Dried Fruit
What plums make prunes? Dried fruit is made from special fruit varieties. Such plum varieties are suitable for cooking as: Hungarian, violet, eel, Azhansky, raisins, Eric, burton and some others. If you try to cook prunes from another variety, for example, home-made Hungarian, chertushka or leather (varieties common in Ukraine), the dried fruit will turn out to be completely different from the one we used to see on the shelves. It will be just a dried plum and nothing more.
For the preparation of delicious and rich prunes, only ripe and sweet fruits are selected. It is most correct to collect plums for making prunes only when the fruits themselves have fallen. If the fruits are still on the tree, this means that they are not yet ripe enough. This means that prunes will come out of them sour and without a corresponding aroma. It is allowed to slightly shake the tree to allow ripened fruits to leave the branches.
How to cook real prunes? Even with ripe, correctly picked plum fruits of the required variety, there is a risk of poor-quality dried fruits, disrupting the drying method. It is not enough just to dry the plum in the open sun or in a vegetable dryer. In this case, the prunes will turn brown, and not saturated black. At the same time, its consistency will be tough, and the vitamin composition will not be fully preserved. This fact once again makes it possible to understand how prunes differ from just plums that are dried incorrectly.
Features of storage before drying
To prepare prunes, you need to take care of storing the fruit until drying. Fallen plums can retain their properties only for three days. After which the fruits begin to collapse rapidly. Before drying, plums must be thoroughly rinsed without damaging their integrity. Then they need to be sorted by size so that the dried fruits are even more beautiful. Then, the selected plums should be blanched, that is, treated with hot water. This procedure has a positive effect on the structure of the fruit, allows them to dry more evenly and correctly. This is followed by another mandatory step - alkaline treatment. To do this, boil the plums in a 1% solution of caustic soda for 15-20 seconds. As a result of this procedure, microcracks are formed on the surface of the drain, through which moisture will leave.
And only after that all you can go directly to drying the sink.
Drying
In mass production, special multi-tier cabinets are used. And at home, an electric dryer, oven or other device can be used for this. You can leave the plums to dry in the sun. But then it will be very difficult to take into account the important condition - when drying the fruit, the temperature should gradually decrease. That is, you need to start the process at a low temperature, about 40-50 degrees, and closer to the end, increase it to 80-90 degrees.
Conclusion
Now you know how plums differ from prunes (a photo of the fruits is presented in the article for clarity). We examined the basic properties of these fruits. However, the difference between the two products does not mean that one of them is more useful than the other. Plums and prunes have the legal right to be on every table if there are no medical contraindications to the use of these products.