Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Climacteric Fruits

Say what?

When understanding fruits, there are two terms to understand -- maturity and ripening, and they are distinct.

Maturity refers to the development of sugar in a fruit.

Ripening refers to the process which makes the flesh softer and makes the fruit develop aroma and complex flavors.

Maturity stops the moment you pluck the fruit. There is no mechanism to make the fruit sweeter after that but climacteric fruits are ones that continue to ripen on their own off the tree. They give off ethylene which is basically a natural signal from fruit to fruit to start ripening.

In this modern world of homogenized agriculture, you are well served by memorizing the names of these fruits. Leave them to develop in a moderately warm environment. (Not too hot, they'll spoil.) Just wash and dry the fruit, and turn it once a day to prevent "spoil spots". You can put them in a paper bag to trap the ethylene but it's not really necessary. (Different fruits ripen at different rates. And tomatoes are included because they are technically fruits.)

The key point is that you can get great results with your supermarket produce if only you understand the process.

apples
apricots
avocados
bananas
muskmelons
figs
guavas
mangoes
nectarines
peaches
pears
persimmons
plums
quinces
tomatoes

4 comments:

Rajni said...

No wonder, Indian sellers of mangoes use calcium carbide to hasten the ripening process.kavi136raj

ShockingSchadenfreude said...

Precisely.

CaC2 + 2H2O → C2H2 + Ca(OH)2

Acetylene (C2H2) is very similar to ethylene and promotes ripening as well.

ShockingSchadenfreude said...

Just in case, anyone thinks that this is "unnatural", the Egyptians had figured out that gashing figs (= produces ethylene) stimulates the ripening of other fruits.

This is a VERY old idea. Only the explanation is modern.

Tom said...

Are you sure? I thought some fruit, such as bananas, contain enzymes which convert starches to sugars over time. So these do sweeten after picking. I'll see whether I can find a reference...