Ingredient

Prunes

A prune is a dried plum, but only certain plums make one. It has to be a variety with enough sugar to dry without fermenting and a stone that comes free — mainly the Agen type, a dense purple prune plum. Drying any old plum gives a dried plum, not a prune.

What drying does

Drying concentrates sugar and acid roughly four-fold and produces a great deal of new flavour along the way. The caramel, tea-like and faintly smoky notes in a good prune are not present in the fresh plum; they develop during drying.

It also concentrates the fruit's natural sorbitol, which is why prunes have the reputation they do. That is a matter for the person eating them rather than for the cook.

A soft, glossy prune is the one to buy. Hard, dull, cracked prunes have been sitting too long and will not soften well.

Savoury uses, which are the best ones

Prunes are far more interesting in a savoury dish than in a bowl of custard.

• With pork. Stuffed into a loin, or in the pan juices of a roast. The classic and it works because the acidity cuts the fat.
• With rabbit or chicken, braised in white wine with prunes and mustard.
• Lapin aux pruneaux, or the Belgian version with beer, which is one of the great uses of the fruit.
• Devils on horseback — prunes wrapped in bacon and grilled. Salt, fat, sugar and smoke together.
• In a tagine with lamb, almonds and cinnamon.
• In a beef stew, where a handful adds a depth people cannot identify.
• Soaked in Armagnac, which is the Gascon habit and improves everything it touches.

Soaking and stewing

1. Cover with hot liquid — water, tea, wine or juice — and leave for twenty minutes to an hour depending on how dry they are.
2. Earl Grey or ordinary black tea is the traditional soaking liquid and adds a tannic edge that suits them.
3. For a compote, simmer the soaked prunes in their liquid with a strip of lemon peel and a cinnamon stick for ten minutes.
4. Do not add sugar until the end, if at all. Prunes are already very sweet and most compote recipes overdo it.
5. Keep the soaking liquid. It is intensely flavoured and useful in a sauce or a stew.

Buying and keeping

Agen prunes

The French benchmark, made from the Ente plum. Dense, dark, glossy, deeply flavoured.

Californian prunes

The bulk of what is sold in Britain. Usually good, sometimes sweeter and blander.

Pitted or with stones

Stone-in prunes generally have better texture and flavour, and are more work. Pitted are more convenient.

The white bloom

Sugar crystallising on the surface as they age. Harmless.

Keeping

Sealed, cool and dark. They dry out and harden in an open packet.

Common questions