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How to buy the best prunes and how are they prepared?
How to buy and choose prunes?
The best way to buy prunes is to look for those that are perfectly packaged, from trusted stores.
Plums are typically sold in vacuum-packed packages or cans. There are also semi-dried plums, which keep part of their juices in their containers. One or the other can be sold with the bone, although the most common lately is that they are sold boneless.
California prunes
Among the best known prunes are California prunes, which is the place in the world that produces the most prunes. California prunes are usually presented in the following formats:
- Natural: dried by the sun or with artificial drying rooms.
- Steamed stews: in its natural juice or with syrup.
- Caramelized: more dehydrated and with a higher sugar content.
- Pureed: they are used as substitutes for margarine, butter or other animal fats in making cakes.
- Prune juice: they have more therapeutic applications than the previous ones. They are used in treatments for stubborn constipation and other abnormalities. They can be used for making cakes or sauces.
Tips for preparing prunes
Regardless of the variety of plum used, or its origin, the following should be taken into account:
- If they are dry, before eating them raw you should leave them to soak for a few hours. In this way they can be eaten together with raisins, walnuts or can be used to give consistency and flavor to salads.
- If you use prune puree instead of animal fats, the cakes or pastries can be used by people who want to lose weight, since sugar has half the calories of fat.
- If they are prepared with meats, such as chicken or pork, they will enhance the flavor, provide more security against contamination and neutralize some toxic compounds when these foods are precooked.
How to cook prunes?
A good resource in traditional cuisine has been to use prunes in their culinary preparations, especially in cakes, as a substitute for margarine and butter.
You can form a kind of puree with the prunes to thicken these preparations at the same time, it does not have the calories of fats derived from milk or animal fats.
There are preparations on the market packed with this type of puree that would be highly recommended for those who want to prepare a fat-free cake. They are also used to make sweet creams, like this recipe for homemade cocoa cream without added sugar.
More information on plums and prunes
