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Preparing
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Banana
Musa acuminata · Tropical fruit
8 varieties40 pairings
The banana is the elongated, curved, sweet fruit of giant tropical herbs in the genus Musa — eaten out of hand when ripe, fried or boiled green as a starchy staple, and baked into breads and cakes when overripe. The dessert types that dominate world trade are nearly all Cavendish, descended chiefly from Musa acuminata.
Picking a good onedrag
UnderripeOverripe
All yellowSweet but still firm. Eating out of hand, slicing over cereal, anything that must not collapse.Buy it
SkinEven yellow, green tips gone
FleshFirm with a little spring
StemCrown drying, fingers tight
SmellLight, clean banana
Reading a just ripe one. Move the slider and the rest of this page — nutrition, pairings — re-scores with it.
What one gives you
64%
Usable yield
118 g · peel off
184 g
Typical weight
one specimen
Keeping ittap a band
Larder at 13–14 C, never the fridge: chilled green fruit greys and never ripens. Ripe fruit is the exception — peel blackens, flesh holds 5–7 days.
Humidity
90-95%
Leave the hand whole and unwrapped — in dry air, bruises darken far more.
Airflow
Open air, unbagged
A sealed bag traps its CO2: ripening stalls, pulp can soften under a green peel.
Ripens itself, and everything beside it
A heavy ethylene source — a paper bag hurries it along. Keep it off avocados and tomatoes you want held back; it spots lettuce and yellows broccoli.