How To Store Bananas Properly

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

Bananas are vibrant tropical fruits that have long since turned from a once-scarce delicacy into an everyday component of our menu. People began to consume these nutritious fruits long before they were introduced to sugar cane and rice. If you store bananas correctly, then they perfectly preserve all their useful substances - and there are a lot of them in these yellow beauties. So how do you keep bananas fresh and enjoy their delicious taste for as long as possible?

How to choose?

Good ripe bananas should be yellow and not too hard. Bright yellow bananas without any veins and green shades are distinguished by a particularly pleasant aroma and delicate taste. If the bananas are dark yellow, but their hue is somehow indistinct, most likely they have ripened incorrectly, and therefore will most likely turn out to be tasteless. Yellow bananas with numerous black spots indicate that the fruit is at the end of its shelf life. They are quite suitable for consumption, but definitely not suitable for storage. By the way, it is generally accepted that it is the darkening bananas that have the best taste, but in any case they must be purchased exclusively for immediate use.

In addition, it is important to know that bananas that have undergone accelerated ripening will always have a less pronounced aroma and less attractive taste.

Purchased bananas must be placed on top of other purchased products, otherwise they can easily wrinkle. And in order not to damage the very vulnerable peel, bananas must be taken exclusively by the bases of the bunches.

How to store?

It is advisable to eat yellow and ripe bananas immediately - ideally, such bananas are bought for one or two days. Ripe bananas are best preserved in high humidity conditions and at temperatures between twelve and fourteen degrees. You can just leave them in the room on a plate, or you can transfer the bananas to the closet and hang them neatly there.

And so that unpleasant bedsores do not appear on bananas, it is recommended to use a stand specially designed for them - it will not be difficult to buy such a thing in our time. However, you can also use a special hanger that allows you to hang them on the wall.

As far as green bananas are concerned, they are indeed able to be stored for a longer time. Eating them green is definitely not worth it - except for the taste of the grass, such fruits are not able to give anything else. But if you let green bananas lie down for two or three days at room temperature, they will quickly acquire the desired ripeness. Only they must be stored exclusively in an open form - if you use the bags, the bananas will quickly begin to rot.

If you want to speed up the ripening process of wonderful tropical fruits, you can put them next to other fruits (for example, apples or pears).

And if the bananas are overripe, you will definitely not be able to save them. However, this is not at all a cause for frustration - you can make an excellent puree or a delicious cocktail from such fruits, or you can simply add them to baked goods or use them as a filling for a ruddy fruit pie.

Unusual storage

It is no secret that ethylene gas is the main catalyst for the ripening of many fruits (including bananas). It is released mainly through the stalks and, getting into other parts of the fruit, contributes to their early ripening. To prevent the leakage of this gas and, accordingly, the inexorably impending spoilage of bananas, banana legs are wrapped in polyethylene film.

Cold storage

This storage option for bananas is strictly contraindicated - firstly, immediately after cooling, the banana peel begins to turn black, and secondly, the banana flesh often acquires a characteristic bitterness. So it's best not to risk it!