Your Cooking Companion

Posted in Food
April 26, 2019

Will My Fruit Ripen On My Counter?

I often find myself scanning bins of unripe fruits, wondering whether it makes sense to buy it anyway and give it time to ripen on my counter.

Unfortunately, there isn’t a general rule about fruit getting better after it’s been picked. Some fruits will definitely do that, others will remain unchanged, still others might look better but not taste better. I don’t think there’s a quick and easy trick for remembering which is which, so you might want to bookmark this post for referral when you’re standing in the grocery store or farmer’s market.

Fruits That Get Sweeter After Picking:

Apples
Bananas
Kiwis
Mangoes
Papayas
Pears

Fruits That Get Prettier and Juicier—BUT NOT SWEETER—After Picking:

Apricots
Blueberries
Figs
Melon (except Watermelon—see below)
Nectarines
Passion fruit
Peaches
Persimmons
Plums
Tomatoes (If they’re green, they WILL taste better after sitting on the counter to ripen. DON’T REFRIGERATE, because just like “first frost”, that will shut the ripening chemicals down.)

Fruits That NEVER Ripen After Picking:

Berries (except blueberries–see above)
Cherries
Citrus (Oranges, Grapefruit, Lemons, Limes)
Grapes
Pineapple
Watermelon

And of course, the exceptions:

Avocados are programmed to ripen AFTER they are picked. So those hard ones will be okay, in time.
Pears also get better after picking, and they ripen best IN THE FRIDGE. (Weird, right?)

Share my content with your friends!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Leave the field below empty!

Oven
Wow, guys, I just learned something highly valuable about cooking…from an oven repair guy! It turns out that most ovens
READ MORE
If you're tired of dry turkeys, try my method. It's faster than many, and easy. The only downside is that
READ MORE
It seems like such a simple thing. Scoop the flour into a measuring cup and dump it into your baking
READ MORE
I don’t mean to offend you, but I’ve been cooking pasta the long way my whole life, and I’m guessing
READ MORE
Okay, so you volunteered to host Thanksgiving dinner, and now you’re trying to figure out how much of everything you
READ MORE