Papayas are usually brought to the supermarkets in this country by plane from tropical and subtropical growing areas. Despite the relatively short transport time, some fruits are harvested a little too early, before they are actually ripe.

Recognize the degree of ripeness of a papaya

The best way to tell how ripe a papaya is is with your eyes and with your fingers. First of all, pay attention to the color of the shell. If this is still completely green, the papaya in question is not suitable for post-ripening and can only be used to prepare spicy papaya salads based on Asian recipes. If, on the other hand, the fruit shows the first yellow spots or stripes, it can still reach its maximum sweetness and flavor intensity after a few days of ripening. A completely yellow or slightly reddish colored fruit yields slightly to the gentle pressure of the fingers against the peel and has reached the maximum degree of ripeness.

Leave a papaya to ripen easily

As long as the purchased papaya already shows yellowish parts of the skin, it can still ripen. To do this, simply wrap them in some newspaper and place them in a warm place. On a windowsill above the radiator, the papaya can sometimes ripen quite quickly. Therefore, check the degree of ripeness regularly and put the fruit in the refrigerator for further storage when it is fully ripe if you do not want to or cannot eat it immediately. You can also use other types of fruit that give off ethylene gas when ripe for even faster ripening.

Use a ripe papaya to ripen other fruits

Papayas share the special property of releasing ethylene gas with the following fruits in particular:

  • bananas
  • tomatoes
  • apples

This means that fruit stored in the immediate vicinity ripen more quickly, but can also spoil. You can therefore place a fully ripe papaya next to other types of fruit and let them ripen faster. As a result, you can also let a sufficiently pre-ripened papaya with the first yellow spots of color ripen faster if you place it next to an already fully ripe and soft papaya.

tips and tricks

When papayas are ripening, you should not overlook the right time to eat them. Once the taste is fully ripe, a papaya will only keep for a few days in the refrigerator. So that there are no taste deficits, the remains of an uneaten papaya should be pureed and frozen in good time.

WK

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