Plum Types - Cooking Light

Photo: Anna Williams

Plum Varieties

America’s romance with heirloom produce means more plum varieties each year. Flavorful light-skinned plums—like Greengage—had been mostly replaced by larger, darker fruits, which hide bruises. And because they're often harvested before ripe, they sometimes lack flavor. Happily, more interesting varieties are making a comeback.

Photo: Anna Williams

Blackamber

A popular American commercial variety with black skin and light-yellow flesh. If you can find tree-ripened ones, they will be sweet and tasty.

Photo: Anna Williams

Damson

One of the more tart varieties, these purple-skinned plums are popular in cooked applications, such as jam or stewed fruit.

Photo: Anna Williams

Elephant Heart

With mottled brownish-gold skin, this ruby red–fleshed fruit is so juicy when ripe that it’s almost drinkable. The flavor is tropical with a hint of vanilla.

Photo: Anna Williams

French Prune

Compact purple European-style plums—about the size of a large walnut—that are deliciously sweet when soft, deliciously tart when firm. Also often called sugar plums.

Photo: Anna Williams

Friar

Another popular variety in American supermarkets. Inky black skin and light flesh; taste best when picked fully ripe.

Photo: Anna Williams

Greengage

This superior European variety is rare. The fruit is small with greenish-yellow speckled skin and fantastic honey-sweet flesh.

Photo: Anna Williams

Mirabelle

Small yellow-crimson blushed plums used to make French plum eau-de-vie. Intensely sweet, these plums are good raw or cooked.

Photo: Anna Williams

Myrobalan (Cherry Plums)

Sweet plums the size of cherry tomatoes. Their skin can be red, -yellow, or purple.

Photo: Anna Williams

Santa Rosa

Another deliciously sweet-tart plum that can be hard to find. Crimson skin with blondish-amber flesh.

Photo: Anna Williams

Satsuma

Not to be confused with the mandarin orange of the same name, these are meaty-fleshed, sweet plums with deep red flesh. Often called blood plum.