Prickly pear
Opuntia ficus-indica · Fruit
Top 10 pairings
The prickly pear, or tuna, is the edible fruit of the Opuntia cactus (chiefly Opuntia ficus-indica) — an egg-shaped berry borne along the rim of the flat green pads, with sweet, watery flesh that ranges from lime-green to deep magenta and is packed with hard, edible seeds.
Picking a good onedrag
Firm, bright, brushed cleanSoft, pitted or fermenting
Ripe and yieldingEveryday bestStill will not improve on the counter. Hold it with a fork and top-and-tail it rather than bare hands; then eat, juice or sorbet it.
SkinColour good, a few scuffs from the brushes
GlochidsA few pale tufts left in the dimples; use the tongs
GiveSlight give, springs back
Stem endScar dry and callused over
SmellMild, sweetly melony up close
What you get from one
65%
Edible part
About 105 g of pulp from a 160 g fruit · the thick rind is the rest of it, and it is the part carrying the glochids. The small hard seeds are eaten rather than refuse — only swallowing a great many at once has rarely been linked to a blockage.
160 g
Weight each
each one
Keeping ittap a temperature
AH-66 puts its window at 5–8 °C for two to five weeks. Under 5 °C the peel pits and bronzes, often only showing once it warms again — and a home fridge runs colder than that.
90-95%
Humidity
Vented, not sealed
Airflow