Ripe Fruit Guide

[nick]

This is a thread about how to tell when fruit is ripe and ready to eat!

If we can list as many fruits as possible and give much detail, signs of when the fruit is ripe. Feel free to add to someones else's comments...

We hope to put this thread on the intro/summary page!

Oranges: ripest when the skin is soft and not firm.

Banana's: brown dots are speckled on the yellow skin and this means they are ready to eat. the more spots, the better. however, when the whole banana itself is covered in them, and its soft to the touch, then its probably gone bad.

avocado: ripe when the skin gives way to slight pressure from your finger. when its soft and gives way too easliy, its probably gone bad.

apples: when they smell their sweetest, they are ready to eat.

cantelope: when the skin gives in to finger pressure, also the smell should tell you how sweet it is, thus how ready it is to eat. the less sweet, the less ripe.

pineapple: they will smell very sweet and are just a little soft when you pressure them with your fingers.

[RRM]

Thank you for this thread Nick; its very helpful.

Oranges: ripest when the skin is soft and not firm.

This may differ per specie. Cuban oranges for example may already be 'sirup-ripe' while still very hard, and even a little green and yellow on the outside, which would mean 'very unripe' if the were oranges from another specie.

Banana's: brown dots are speckled on the yellow skin and this means they are ready to eat. the more spots, the better. however, when the whole banana itself is covered in them, and its soft to the touch, then its probably gone bad.

On the other hand, a totally dark, almost black banana may also just be overripe while not gone bad; if the inside is almost liquid, even then the banana may not have gone bad, but only turned into 'liquid sugar'. This is the result of starches being converted into simple sugars.

One problem of bananas, as well as other fruits, is that they are forced to ripen faster, which means that they dont ripe completely; they may already look ripe on the outside while they are not on the inside.

avocado: ripe when the skin gives way to slight pressure from your finger. when its soft and gives way too easliy, its probably gone bad.

Make sure that the skin gives way equally much on all sides. Softer spots usually mean that they have been exposed to pressuring or a fall.

pineapple: they will smell very sweet and are just a little soft when you pressure them with your fingers.

With pineapple you better make very very sure that its ripe, because even when slightly unripe, it contains protein-decomposing enzymes that may hurt your lips and tongue (all our cells are largely mad up from protein), causing chipping and sour spots.

[BlueFrog]

Yes, generally speaking smell is a good indicator of ripe fruit, especially since flavor is more smell than taste, which more or less is limited to salt, bitter, sweet, and sour. The finer points of flavor are determined by scent.

For melons, it's always a good idea to pick them up and check for weight. Ripe melons will be heavy so that they are laden with water weight. The seeds of honeydew may rattle around the melon when shaken. Canteloupe (muskmelon) turns yellow in between the netting when ripe and smells sweet. You can also knock on any melon to hear the thud versus a hollow sphere sound. This again is another check for water.

Shake coconuts. A ripe one will have about a cup of milk sloshing about. If there doesn't seem to be alot of milk, it's either under or overripe.

Pineapples are yellow and fragrant when ripe. (They've been tasty this year.)

Monstera scales will peel away in your hand when you pick it up. It ripens unevenly, and some of it may get overripe while other portions are not ripe yet. Better to err on the too ripe side. The underripe fruit contains oxalic acid, which burns strongly, makes your entire mouth and tongue swell, and feels like thousands of needles in your mouth. If you do peel it too early, you can set it aside for another day or two. It often continues to ripen even after peeled.

Kiwis should should give just slightly to the touch, without any wrinkling or dimpling and have a bit of scent. You may also notice that more green shows through the fuzzy skin of ripe kiwis.

Lemons should have a medium firmnes. Hard ones are underripe, soft and spongy are overripe. They may have a bit of sweet, lemon fragrance. They should be heavy, indicating liquid weight. Small lemons tend to have more juice and less skin proportionally.

Tomato ripeness varies by species. Some varieties are yellow or purple when ripe, but standard grocery store tomatoes in the off-season are pink/red when ripest (although they never get truly ripe because they are harvested too early). They should be firm, not soft, and heavy. Plum or italian tomatoes are a better variety for winter. They have more flavor than the isreal or vine tomatoes then. They turn bright red when ripe. Tomatoes are unusual in that once they start to ripen they will continue to ripen similar to the way they do on the vine if you just leave them in sunlight. I store them on the window sill of my kitchen.

Root onions should be uniformly firm and not soft or have any soft spots.

When buying packaged berries, look for juice at the bottom. This is a sign that they are overripe and should be avoided as they are already starting to rot. Ripe berries should smell slightly acidic and sweet. Berries usually do not ripen well after harvest, so avoid purchasing slightly unripe berries in hopes that they'll ripen.

Apples should be very firm, except for Lodi, which is rarely found in stores because it is soft and doesn't transport well. Softness often indicates that the apple has started to become mealy as the sugars convert to startch. They won't taste as sweet and they will be grainy in texture. A bright green or red skin with no rotting at the stem or end as well as a faint sweet smell are good. Red Delicious should probably be avoided since they've been overbred and genetically manipulated in the last few decades and are unrecognizable from red delicious of just a few decades ago. Luckily, there are hundreds of others to choose from.

Mangos should be mostly orange and yellow in color, not have any wrinkling or dimpling which indicates overripenes or rot, slightly soft, and smell like....mango. Avoid mangos with black spots which indicate bruising or rotting.

Grapes should be round and firm with no wrinkling or dimpling (unless you're looking for raisins). They smell slightly sweet and the grape look and feel 'plump'. Ripe grapes are lower in acid than underripe ones.

I've found that smell is the best indicator for peaches. Although ripe peaches tend to be slightly soft and yellow/red in color. These alone have not been consistently good indicators of ripeness.

Bartlet pears start to turn yellow and the stems break off very easily when they are ripe. They should be slightly firm, but not overly so.

Here's alson an outside link to what someone else says about how to determine if fruit is ripe:

http://www.boisestate.edu/healthservice ... efruit.pdf

I think most of it corresponds with what I said. The guide at the bottom is also nice. Somethings ripen nicely if you buy unripe fruit a few days in advance of when you plan to eat it. Others only rot.

[Oscar]

There are several kinds of mango, and some can be ripe while still green, so I would suggest to go for the smell first, and then the touch.

[BlueFrog]

Ahhhh, you must meant the Californian Keitt mango. I believe it's the only store variety that doesn't fully turn yellow red. The Tommy Atkins (very common), Haden, Kent, etc. all turn fully orange/red when ripe.