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Preparing
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Plantain
Musa paradisiaca · Tropical fruit
40 pairings
The plantain is the large, firm, starchy cooking banana — a group of Musa cultivars that are eaten cooked at every stage of ripeness rather than out of hand. Bigger, thicker-skinned and far less sweet than a dessert banana, it behaves more like a vegetable: starchy and potato-like when green (tostones, chips, fufu, mofongo) and sweetening to a rich, caramelised softness when fried black-ripe (maduros). It is a foundational carbohydrate staple across West and Central Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America.
Picking a good onedrag
Green and rock hardBlack-ripe, then over
Turning yellowStill firm enough to hold its shape: boil, bake or fry in thick slices. Sweeter than green, and still cooked - raw it is chalky rather than harmful.Firm and lightly sweet
SkinGreen going yellow, a brown fleck or two
SqueezeFirm, the faintest give at the tips
SmellFaintly sweet under the green
Cut endCut end dry and corky, nothing weeping
What to look for, from green and rock hard to black-ripe, then over.
What one gives you
50%
Usable yield
Half a green one is peel · thick and tight, cut and pried off rather than stripped
Keeping ittap a band
AH-66 puts chilling injury for banana and plantain below about 13 C, but holds green plantains at 9-12 C. Ripe ones stay out; a supermarket chiller is already too cold.
Humidity
90-95%
AH-66 pairs that 9-12 C store with 90-95% RH, and warns that under 85-90% every knock and press mark shows up worse on the peel.
Airflow
Cool and airy, not sealed
Loose and unstacked, never bagged. About a week in a warm kitchen before a green one blackens; about two weeks at 9-12 C.
Both a source and a target
Climacteric: AH-66 measures up to 10 uL/kg/h off ripening fruit at 20 C, and finds it answers to as little as 0.3 uL/L. It ripens the bowl, and the bowl ripens it.