In this article, we’re going to cover what prunes taste like along with a few other interesting tidbits you’ll be interested in before you try them…
Let’s get started…
What Do Prunes Taste Like?
Prunes are incredibly sweet, and while they are a dried plum, do not always have that same plum flavor that many people expect from the fresh fruit.
Depending on the type of plum used, the flavor of prunes can vary from intensely to mildly sweet, making it important to sample the prune before use in recipes.
Some prunes have a deep sweetness that tastes like brown sugar or molasses. These prunes can easily take the place of traditional sweeteners in desserts and other recipes.
Prunes that are less sweet will have more of a honey taste, which is much milder and can be a little understated.
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Prune Texture
Like most dried fruits, prunes tend to be incredibly sticky and also very soft to touch and to bite down on. However, unlike some dried fruits, such as dried cranberries, which can sometimes be hard, prunes stay soft for a very long time.
They come in packaging to help ensure that they don’t get hard and crunchy around the edges, although the skin on the prune can tend to be a little more toothsome than the tender insides.
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Are Prunes Bitter?
The great thing about prunes is that while the skin of fresh plums can tend to be bitter, the skin that is left on the plums when they are dried loses that bitter taste. This means that prunes are, in general, much sweeter overall and won’t have the bitter taste that some people don’t appreciate in fresh plums.
The sweetness of the prune makes it great for use in a lot of desserts or to temper the acidity of other dishes. Additionally, because they aren’t bitter, most people are able to eat them by themselves without dealing with a bitter or unpleasant flavor.
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What Fruit Is a Prune?
Prunes are actually just dried plums. While it is possible to dry any type of plum that you have and make a prune, there is one specific type of European plums that are most often used to make prunes.
The stone of the plum is removed before the fruit is dried so that there won’t be any concerns of someone biting into it.
Thanks to the incredibly high sugar content in plums, these fruits can easily be dried without them starting to ferment. Prunes can be made in one of three ways:
- Dehydration by sun drying
- Dehydration by natural drying
- Dehydration in a commercial or home dehydrator
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Wrap up
Prunes are great to eat either by themselves or for use in recipes, and will add an unexpected and natural sweetness to any dish, making them a great alternative to other sweeteners. Thanks to their sticky consistency, they are a wonderful option when you need to hold food together.
If you haven’t ever tried prunes, or dried plums before, then it’s time to pick some up at the store and enjoy the concentrated sweetness of plums without having to worry about any of the bitter flavor that you can so often encounter in their skin.
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Hey, I’m Joey. I’ve been cooking since I was a little kid and love everything about it. You can find my writing about food, kitchen appliances (such as blenders) and much more. Thanks for stopping by!
