Subscribe RSSThe Wheeling Gourmet by Nicolas Steenhout
Recipes, cooking lessons, tips, tricks, food blog, and more.
Recipes, cooking lessons, tips, tricks, food blog, and more.
I like ripe fruits because they are at their sweetest. I'd say at their best, but some might disagree.
18 April 2010
Fruits are at their sweetest just before spoiling. I happen to like sweet fruit, not everyone does. So I can't say fruits are at their best before spoiling, because "best" is too suggestive. I invite you to revisit very ripe fruits if you don't eat them usualy - you may be pleasantly surprised by the intensity of the flavours.
A perfectly ripe pear, despite slight blemishes.
Pears are at their best when they are ripe - juicy, sweet, tender, full of "pear flavour". Blemishes might have started to appear on the fruit. The flesh is softer under the fingers. And once you bite through the skin into the soft, slightly gritty flesh, you are rewarded with deliciousness.
I like ripe bananas. I mean, *really* ripe bananas. A friend of mine deems her bananas ready to make cake with, and the same banana isn't ripe enough for me to eat! I like the sweet fragrance of the banana, the intense flavour of the fruit. When the banana isn't ripe, it's a bit like biting into a piece of wood (yes, I tried!). A green banana just isn't sweet enough for me. Even a "just-turned-yellow" one isn't particulary good as far as I'm concerned.
As for pineapples, they too become sweeter as they get older. I remember preparing a food tray for a friend's reception - I selected a pineapple that showed no green at all on its skin. When I cut into it, the flesh was a dark, intense yellow. There were a few darker spots near the core of the fruit. My friend said that she thought the pineapple was just too old, it didn't look good! I finished cleaning it up, cut a small slice, and asked her to taste it. She said she hadn't known until then what pineapple should taste like!
For me, fruits are at their best just before they are over-ripe. All right, you don't like such sweet fruit. Perhaps the flavours are too intense for you. It doesn't matter. We can agree that fruits are sweeter before their demise! It's something to keep in mind.
XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>
Never eat more than you can lift. Miss Piggy
Unfortunately, whilst I looove the intensity of flavour of fruits when they are fully ripe, on the verge of spoiling... one thing puts me off and that\'s the texture.
They\'re too gooey, soft, squidgy for me by that time. Bananas are the perfect example - flavour wise, I love sweet, intense banana but texture wise I can only eat them (raw) when they are much firmer, before there is any brown on the skin at all.
Same for pears, I like crispness in texture...
Comment by: Kavey - April 18th, 2010 @ 21:11