Plum-Flavored Meat Products, Anyone?

I know plum is popularly paired with wild meat, but that’s not what I’m referring to. Because dried plums (prunes to some of us) and plum juice have a high antioxidant property, researchers are looking into incorporating it into meat products such as pre-cooked pork sausages, roast beef and ham as a meat preservative. The antioxidants in plum and plum juice retard oxidation of fatty acids that make up fat, and thus help prolong its shelf life.

This seems to be a good alternative to synthetic preservatives such as BHA (butylated hydroxyl anisole) and BHT (butylated hydroxyl toluene), which have long been used as antioxidants.

I’m not sure if it affects the flavor, and they also said that the amount of plum pate used is very small to have laxative effects, so I suppose that with these small amounts there’d also be no health benefits transferred to the meat due to the phytochemicals, antioxidants and phenolic compounds in plum. If that’s what you’re after, then just get real dried plums. The California Dried Plum Board has a lot of recipes incorporating dried plum to appetizers, snacks, salads, desserts, and of course, as an accompaniment to meat, fish or poultry dishes. On photo above is the Dried Plum and Pork Skillet Supper.