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Use apples
to ripen other fruits. Ethylene gas from apples can encourage
ripening in avocados, bananas, and cantaloupe.
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What a sensation to bite into a really
ripe peach --the soft flesh, the heady aromas, the sweet juices everywhere,
and that incredible flavor. This seduction of the senses is very deliberate
on the part of the peach. In fact, it's a matter of survival. Fruits are
the seed-bearing ovaries of plants, and their mission is to spread these
seeds. When fruits ripen, they become overwhelmingly desirable to animals
(man included) so that animals will carry them off, eat them, and spread
the seeds.
So how can you tell if a fruit is ripe? Unfortunately, most people
don't have orchards and gardens full of fruit ripe for the picking. In
fact most of the fruit we buy, at the grocery store anyway, has left the
garden far behind, having been picked before its prime to avoid shipping
damage and storage loss. All the more reason for us to understand the
ripening process and learn some tricks for telling which fruit is ripe
now and which will get ripe once you take it home from the market.
As fruits ripen, they go from hard, sour, inedible, near-invisible parts
of the plant to stand-out, brilliant-colored, sweet, juicy objects with
enticing aromas. They change in color, size, weight, texture, flavor,
and aroma (some even produce ethylene gas); these varied attributes can
be good indicators of ripeness.
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Which
fruits ripen; which don't
|
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Never ripen
after picking
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soft
berries, cherries, citrus, grapes, litchis, olives, watermelon
|
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Ripen only
after picking
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avocados |
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Ripen in
color, texture, and juiciness but not in sweetness after picking
|
apricots,
blueberries, figs, melons (besides watermelon), nectarines, passionfruit,
peaches, persimmons |
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Get sweeter
after picking
|
apples,
cherimoyas, kiwi, mangos, pineapples, papayas, pears, sapotes, soursops |
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Ripen in
every way after harvest
|
bananas |
The chart opposite, devised by food writer Jeffrey Steingarten, shows
which fruits ripen at what stage. While the information is a little depressing
(you'll see that there are precious few fruits that get sweeter and improve
in taste after picking), I find the chart very useful in gauging my chances
of getting a piece of fruit that I'll actually want to eat
Color is a clue, but not a reliable one. With some fruits, you
can tell they're ripe by their color. As the acidity changes, the green
chlorophyll breaks down. Some fruits like bananas and apples have bright
colors underneath the green chlorophyll layer; the colors show through
as the chlorophyll disappears. Other, like tomatoes, make their red-orange
compound at the same time that the chlorophyll breaks down. Bluish-red
berries become a deeper, more intense red as they ripen. For these fruits--bananas,
apples, pineapples, tomatoes, red berries, cherries--color change is an excellent
indication of ripeness.
Aroma hints strongly at flavor. Smell is especially important
when color is not a good indicator of ripeness--for example, with most
melons. Chemical changes take place in ripening fruits that cause them
to produce sensuous, luscious-smelling volatile compounds.
Sniff the blossom end of the fruit (the end opposite the stem) and only
select fruit that has a full, fruity aroma.
Feel for a tender texture. As fruits ripen, the substances that
hold the cells together (hemicelluloses and firm pectic substances) break
down and convert to water-soluble pectins, which makes the fruit become
softer and softer, so a gentle squeeze is a good test for ripeness. If
a plum is rock hard, it isn't ripe. The squeeze test is especially useful
with fruit that doesn't have a hard or thick rind, so squeeze stone fruit,
pears, kiwis, and avocados. This doesn't work well with melons
or pineapples, but even with these rough-coated fruits, a little give
is a good sign.
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How
to speed-ripen fruit
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When some fruits
ripen (bananas and apples especially) they give off ethylene gas,
which further speeds ripening. In fact, produce shippers use ethylene
to ripen certain fruit (or at least to get it to change color and
look ripe) when it reaches its destination.
At home you
can use ethylene to speed ripening. This method works especially
well with tomatoes, avocados, bananas, and cantaloupe. First warm
the fruit by setting it in a sunny window or microwave it for 15
seconds on medium power. Put it in a paper bag with a couple of
ripe apples and close loosely. You want the ethylene concentrated
in the bag, but you also want oxygen to get in to speed ripening.
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Heavy is good. Weight can be a good indicator of ripe fruit. You'll
often see the phrase "heavy for its size" as a positive attribute
for fruit. It generally means that the fruit is at least fully mature,
which is a good start on the road to ripeness. A heavy tomato or grapefruit,
for example, is usually a good one.
If you have a grower nearby who allows you to pick your own or who's
a conscientious producer who handles his produce well, by all means take
advantage of that locally grown, just-picked ripe fruit. Your local county
extension agent can help you find growers and farmers' markets. And speak
up to the produce manager of your supermarket, too. Even big companies
respond to consumer pressure.
--Food scientist Shirley O. Corriher, a contributing
editor to Fine Cooking, is the author of the award-winning CookWise (William
Morrow). Illustration: Fanny Berry. From FC #30, p. 82. |
