Aprium

Prunus armeniaca × Prunus salicina · Stone fruit

40 pairings

An aprium is a complex apricot–plum hybrid stone fruit bred to be mostly apricot (typically around three-quarters Prunus armeniaca to one-quarter Prunus salicina). It keeps the apricot's honeyed, floral perfume and downy skin while borrowing a plum's extra juiciness and sugar — the apricot-dominant counterpart to the plum-dominant pluot.

Picking a good onedrag

Hard, green-shoulderedSlack, mealy, winey

Just ripeFirm enough to halve around the stone and hold its shape: grilling, roasting, tarts, poaching in syrup.Buy it

SkinGround gone gold, faint down even over it

FleshSprings at the shoulder, takes no dent

SmellFaint honey at the stem hollow

Stem hollowColour runs into the hollow, scar dry

Reading a just ripe one. Move the slider and the rest of this page — nutrition, pairings — re-scores with it.

What one gives you

93%

Usable yield

stone out · about, apricot's 7% refuse

Keeping ittap a band

A domestic fridge holds it about 3× longer than the counter.

Humidity

90-95%

Thin, faintly downy skin loses water fast: below 90% the stem end wrinkles and the flesh turns leathery rather than soft.

Airflow

Open, single layer

Brown rot runs between touching fruit — one unwashed layer, and lift out any that has gone soft or weepy.

Gives it off, and answers it

Climacteric like both its parents: one ripe aprium softens the bowl around it, and a banana in the bag hurries a hard one along in a day.

Preparing