Kiwi

Actinidia deliciosa · Temperate fruit

1 variety40 pairings

The kiwi (Actinidia deliciosa) is the fuzzy, egg-sized berry of a vigorous woody vine, prized for its emerald flesh, ring of edible black seeds and a bright, sweet-tart flavour that reads of strawberry, banana and fresh-cut grass at once. Eaten raw — halved and scooped, or peeled and sliced — it is also the fruit that launched modern flavour-pairing science.

Picking a good onedrag

Hard, squeaky, unripeSlumped and fermenting

Firm ripeHolds an edge: wedges, tarts, salads, anything cut.Slice it

GiveFirm; the ends give slightly

Stem endScar dry, slightly sunken

SkinFuzz rubbed thin, skin still taut

Smell at the scarFaintly sweet and green

Reading a just ripe one. Move the slider and the rest of this page — nutrition, pairings — re-scores with it.

What one gives you

76%

Usable yield

69 g · skin off

91 g

Typical weight

one specimen

Keeping ittap a band

A domestic fridge holds it about 7× longer than the counter.

Humidity

90-95%

The fuzz hides water loss until the skin goes slack; a loose bag in the crisper. Bare on a shelf it wrinkles within a fortnight.

Airflow

Still air, loosely bagged

Loose bag, never sealed tight: damp trapped against the fuzz brings the grey stem-end mould that is this fruit's main storage rot.

Answers to it, then makes it

5-10 parts per billion softens it, less than one apple in a shut drawer, so keep it apart while firm. Once ripe it pours out ethylene itself: move it off lettuce and broccoli.

Preparing