On food and cooking the science and lore of the kitchen ( PDFDrive ) 730

Acenturyago,onlyahandfuloftropical
fruitswereavailabletoEuropeandNorth
America,andtheywereluxuries.Nowadays
thebananaisacommonbreakfastfoodand
newfruitsappearinthemarketeveryyear.
Herearethemostfamiliar.
Banana and Plantain Thanks to their
productivity and starchy nutritiousness,
bananas and plantains top the roster of world
fruit production and trade. The worldwide
annual per capita consumption is almost 30
lb/14kg,andinregionswherethey’reastaple
food, individuals consume several hundred
kilogramsperyear.Bananasandplantainsare
the seedless berries of a tree-sized herb
relatedtothegrasses,Musasapientum,which
originatedinthetropicsofSoutheastAsia.A
banana plant produces a single flower
structure with from 1 to 20 “hands” or fruit
clusters, as many as 300 “fingers” of
individual fruit, each fruit weighing from a


couple of ounces to 2 lb/50–900 gm. The
characteristic curve of long fruits develops
becausethefruittipgrowsupward,againstthe
downward pull of gravity. Bananas and
plantains are climacteric fruits, store their
energyasstarch,andconvertsomeormostof
that starch to sugar during ripening. In the
dramaticcaseofthebanana,astarch-to-sugar

ratioof25to1inthematurebutunripefruit
becomes1to20intheripefruit.
Thetermsbananaandplantainareused
fortwobroadandoverlappingcategoriesfor
themanyvarietiesofthesefruits.Bananasare
generallysweetdessertvarieties,and
plantainsarestarchycookingvarieties.
Bananasareverysweetwhenripe,theirnearly
20%sugarcontentexceededonlybydatesand
jujubes,whileripeplantainsmaybeonly6%
sugarand25%starch.Botharepickedgreen
andripenedinstorage,andareveryperishable
onceripethankstotheiractivemetabolism.
Bananasdevelopameltinglysmooth