Italian Plums (prunes) Cook, or not?

[Old Philosopher]

The last thread I found on this was 4 years old, so bear with me here.
I have a huge volume of Italian prune plums to process. Italian plums are notoriously NOT juicy, even when overly ripe.
Last year I tried two methods: 1) pressing the prunes in an apple press and using the extracted juice. Terrible waste of residual juice, but a very good wine, and 2) pitting and grinding the prunes, then allowing them to drain, and again using just the juice. Not good...
This year I'm contemplating pitting & halving the prunes, and cooking them down in just enough water to cover them in batches. The same way you would make juice for jelly. I thought I would then transfer them to a straining bag in the primary, and add the water used to boil them, topping off appropriately for the amount of fruit I used (~8 lbs/gal of water). I would then be doing the primary fermenting with the fruit in the primary.
Any thoughts on this? Is cooking them down to pulp them going to mess things up, since that essentially pasteurizes them? Does anyone have a preferred method of using Italian prunes?

 

[Deezil]

I havent had the pleasure/pain of working with a fruit that lacked juice, so take my thoughts with a grain of salt..

I would worry that heating the juice would cause it to cloud up from a protein haze, like apple does

Can you cut them up and freeze them?
That would help some, i think

- I'd freeze them (if you can) first, then thaw/mash them up good
- Then add just enough water to cover the mush, so its kinda soupy/stewy
- I'd add k-meta & ice at this point, to let it all soak pre-fermentation
- And just before pitching the yeast, i'd put the fruit in straining bags
- Then let the fermentation temp creep up to 75-80F or maybe a tad higher (yeast strain depending)

The cold soak + warm / hot ferment should pull what you can, out of the plums

 

[Old Philosopher]

I don't have room in my freezers to handle the job effectively. Normally freezing wouldn't be a problem here in Montana in October. But instead of being 28 degrees outside, it's 68!! Stupid weather!
I'd normally do a 48 hour soak in pectic enzymes, but I don't have any available, and by the time I got some, the prunes would only be fit for chicken feed.