The fruits can be cooked to make jam and juice. Raw, on the other hand, they taste very astringent.
The variety morello cherry (subsp. acida) is well-known and often traded in glass jars, as compotes and jam, and it is an essential ingredient in the Black Forest gateau.
Cornelian cherries taste sweet, but also quite astringent when picked and eaten fresh from trees or hedges.
Fruits and leaves of „Monk’s pepper“ work as spices. Especially the hot tasting fruits can be used as a pepper substitute.
The soft, juicy pulp tastes aromatic of fir, it is tart and resinous, yet very sweet.
The paper-thin skin hides a very firm, crunchy, yellowish-white flesh, which tastes very good when ripe and has an aroma reminiscent of mango, lychee or (remotely) durian.
During the ripening process, the initially yellow fruit is covered more and more with reddish-brown spots until the whole skin is brown.
If the myrobalan plum is not eaten raw, it can be processed into compote and jam.
Zwetschgen are eaten fresh, processed into zwetschgendatschi tart, schmootsch and as dried fruits.
The hairy fruits, which grow on very short stems almost directly on the branch, are juicy and soft, slightly sweet and tart.
Of all the yellow cherry varieties, this one is probably the best known and most common throughout Germany.