pluot

One of those freaky-ass made-up fruits. Like a plumcot, but more complicated. They have predominantly plum parentage and smooth skins like plums. A pluot's sugar content is much higher than in any standard plum or apricot, which makes the fruit sweeter than either. The pluot does not have the bitterness in the skin that plums often have. It's got Vitamin A and C and potassium. Cousin to the aprium. "Pluot" is a registered trademark of Zaiger Genetics, Modesto, California.

I just tried my first pluot yesterday after finding some at the local Acme Market. Not bad! The flavor is much like a plum but the flesh is firmer and less 'drippy'. I wonder if they will make it in the marketplace, though, since the skins are ugly and mottled and look like something is wrong with the fruit. Judging from the photos at http://www.edengarden.com/pluots.html, the variety I got was Dapple Dandy. The other varieties do not seem to have that cosmetic problem.

The web site of the Dave Wilson Nursery in California informs me that

Pluot® and Aprium® interspecific hybrids are complex crosses of plum and apricot. Unlike plumcots, which are simple plum X apricot crosses, Pluot® and Aprium® interspecifics were developed by the Zaigers through intricate hybridizing, requiring several generations of crosses to create these new fruit.

Paul James' Home Grown Cooking Episode HGC-106 presented a recipe for Seared Ostrich Loin with Pluot Sauce -- I didn't see it but it's on the web. Anybody know where I can score 1 pound of Ostrich loin?

The name pluot seems ugly and hard to pronouce to me (all the good names were taken!). My son noticed that pluot is an anagram for Pluto.