D-I-Y Fruit Ripening

But I don't know of any other pear which tastes as good.

The trick with ripening bananas is plenty of free air flow to prevent the localised build up of too much ethylene.

He was still funny back then.

It appears that irradiation has the effect of delaying ripening, as well as extending shelf life, perhaps it extends the keeping properties of the ripened fruit, which is the nub of your OP.

Aka, "French Golden Delicious", Yeuch!

If you ever see Golden Delicious that are actually golden yellow, usually from South Africa, I recommend you try them. They're rare but delicious.

For me most South African grown fruit seems to have a decent taste, especially black grapes.

Today I purchased some English (Kent) apples in Lidl, variety = Robijn. It was in their 'special' 69p for 5 fruit section. I'm pleasantly surprised - firm, crisp, juicy and just slightly acidic. Very reminiscent of what Granny Smiths _used_ to taste like.

Much maligned but if ripe, ie golden, they're pleasant enough. Red delicious OTOH, yuck. Worst of all varieties though is Discovery. When I ate one I did indeed discover something.

NT

Oh yes that's what Waitrose do

they make some claim about being no more expensive for your shopping that Sainsburys (or whoever)

and when you get there you find out that they are only taking about Kellogg's cornflakes and Heinz ketchup.

but all the fresh fruit/veg/meat/bread/dairy

which now makes up about 80% of *my* shopping basket, is twice the price

tim

I haven't tried to find out yet

tim

how would that take away the horrid taste?

tim

my usual claim is that they taste of chalk (with the consistency of soap)

tim

They are referring to branded goods.

is it twice as good?

same as any other supermarket minus the cheaper & not as good lines.

NT

I agree with you about Red Delicious, but Discovery is one of my favourites. Perhaps the one you ate wasn't ripe.

my sister claims that it is

I have personally never noticed the difference

I'm starting to think that my taste buds have ceased to work

but if that's the case, why do I still detest the taste of X (a large set of items)?

tim

I understand that there can be differences in ready meals based upon price because the more expensive product might have provided the nutritional value using "real" food rather than chemical bulking agents. Though whenever I have tried a pack of "taste the difference?" it's always been more a case of "no, I can't".

But where's the difference in fresh products across the price bands?

I understand that different varieties can provide better taste but have been engineered out of the farming process because they produce poor yield/shelf life.

So, in theory, a more expensive product might taste better because it is from one of these poor yielding products.

But that is not my experience. IME the difference in price is not because the famer has used a different variety (or fed it on more expensive feed) but because he has given the animal a name and tucked it up in bed every day, before he killed it

tim

waitrose...

If you want quality food, JS TTD is certainly not the place to look.

NT

That's because of the massive amount of salt as the main ingredient. Cheap salt tastes the same as expensive salt!