Hi.
I bought 4-5 jackfruit over the years, before I finally figured out how to actually properly eat one.

Jackfruit is filled with latex and the youtube videos I watched taught to cover your hands with oil before removing the fruit. I did that and I still got latex on my hands and it was so annoying and so tedious, that I would wait MONTHS before I was curious enough to try another jackfruit.

Finally, finally, finally, I figured it out. This time my jackfruit got ripe so suddenly and unexpectedly fast. A small area of mold and softness appeared on one end. I cut that part off. After I cut off the bad part, I was surprised to find that there was no latex inside the fruit. I was able to reach in and get some fruit without covering my hand in latex.

I got a third of the fruit out and put the open end on a plate and refrigerated it. After a couple of days, I came back to the jackfruit and got out a third more and still no latex. During those two days in the fridge, the jackfruit got even riper in the center, so it softened it up.

SO what I learned, sad to say, is to wait for a little bad spot to appear on the jackfruit, to know that it truly is ripe. THis is what usually has happened with papayas that I buy. Usually they are ripe when a bad spot appears. Not always, but it often happens like that. If you try to eat a papaya too early, it's usually not sweet.

Then the next thing I learned is that the jackfruit will continue to ripen in the fridge and you can eat it in stages. This way, you can avoid the latex by letting it fully ripen.

I almost totally gave up on jackfruit. The only reason why I bought this jackfruit was because the durian price almost doubled at my store and the jackfruit was like $.80/lb.

The last tip is to perceive plumpness in the jackfruit. THe jackfruit I bought was not that big but it was quite plump for its size. I could tell that it was picked on time and not too early. Anyway, the fruit was giant in size inside and I realize that some jackfruit that I bought in the past was not fully mature in size. (THe tip is the same for durian. Even a small durian can be good, if it is plump. Also the less green on the durian, the better and riper it is.)

The taste of the fully ripe jackfruit is so much better than the moderately ripe jackfruit.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/16/2015 09:50PM by Tai.

I guess I'm lucky. I have never had Jackfruit with any discernible latex. Where I am you can only buy it by the slice which runs about 1 1/2" thick. It costs about $7 a slice. I've always thought they might be over ripe because the seed casings have pulled away from the seeds. I guess Jackfruit are just right that way. Good to know.

This video shows the dreaded experience that I used to go through (not me in the video):

[www.youtube.com]

(By the way, the latex is only in the peel and in the core; it's not inside the fruit, but it can leak when you cut it.)

My new experience suggests that the jackfruit is simply not ripe in the above video.

This fruitarian knows how to pick jackfruit with no latex. Why didn't anyone teach me this years ago?
[www.youtube.com]

By the way, Indians from India cook unripe jackfruit (before it ever turns sweet) in big chunks and it resembles chicken. Cooked vegans use so many unhealthy fake meat substitutes but they could use unripe jackfruit instead.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/17/2015 09:24PM by Tai.

An example of a cooked vegan meat substitute (using fresh jackfruit is best):

[www.youtube.com]

I was raised never eating pork or shellfish and then I became vegan, so this dish above is not the least bit tempting to me. Yet, I can't believe how some of my friends and family still eat pork, even though it is mainly factory farmed. It is so disgusting to me. Anyway, it looks like jackfruit can be disguised as any meat.

REcently I bought a 38 pound jackfruit. I bought the biggest jackfruit available. It was so plump that the spikey edges were rounded. If any of the jackfruits had the potential to be free of latex, it was going to be this one.

I let it ripen for one week. Initially it was green when I bought it. Over the course of a week, it turned yellow. I rotated it daily

The first day I bought it, the stem was sticky with latex. When I decided to open it, the stem had turned to mush with no latex. I waited until a bad spot appeared like the last time; actually I waited until there were several bad spots this time just to make doubly sure the latex would be gone.

This time there was latex. I thought waiting until it was fully fully ripened would have transformed the latex, but not fully. Ripening does make some and most latex disappear, but not fully.

I did have to use oil on my hands several times to clean the 38 pound jackfruit! By the way, I stored my jackfruit in mason jars and topped each jar off with freshly made mature coconut milk to avoid any air oxidizing the fruit. The jackfruit is very juicy when it's left to overly ripen a bit.

I guess I was just lucky last time with the jackfruit with no latex.

I have been putting the jackfruit in fruit salads every day and it's storing well in the mason jars.

Quick simple mature coconut milk:

The way I make coconut milk is just to blend mature coconut meat with water in the vitamix and pour through a very fine stainless steel sieve. I gave up on using nutmilk bags. Too time consuming. THe sieve I have works just as good as the nutmilk bag. After I blend once and strain, I use the pulp once more in the blender with less water this time. I make a second but more diluted coconut milk with the second batch. Then after straining, I toss the used pulp into the worm farm. Once in a while I have dehydrated the pulp to use later as coconut flour.

I usually add coconut milk to my fruit salads. If I want to get fancy (meaning if I have time), I will blend young thai coconut water and meat, fresh mature coconut milk, a vanilla bean, dates, a banana and soaked almonds and make a rick milk for fruit salads and smoothies.

Never seen kackfruit in my entire life. Never even heard of it until l heard John Kohler mention it.

www.thesproutarian.com

Tai, where do you live, and where are the Jackfurit from?

Years ago I lived in tropical North Queensland on a small organic farm and I had jackfruit straight off the tree, as well as some that fell on the ground overnight - a truly memorable experience. A bit like eating fruit salad, realLy really nice, with no latex.

I think it's just one of those things with fruit being picked too early. I've since tried buying jackfruit from the shop but don't bother any more. Even when they soften it's a waste of money.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/25/2015 01:31AM by BJ.

BJ:
Tai, where do you live, and where are the Jackfurit from?

Tai:
I live in California, USA.
THe jackfruit are from asia. I don't know which country. I buy them in the Chinese supermarkets

BJ:
Even when they soften it's a waste of money

Tai:
I have paid from between 0.59 to .99 cents per pound for jackfruit. I heard prices are high in Australia for fruit. The 38 lb jackfruit was about $23.

I am pretty happy with my jackfruit this time, despite the latex. I learned to get it maximally ripe and the latex is manageable and not overwhelming. If they picked them ripe, they wouldn't make the trip.

Here in Sydney where I live the price is 3 or 4 times what you pay, so is too expensive to risk the big $$$'s for an unripe one. Enjoy.

I know exactly what you mean about the latex. I do love the bubblegum taste of jakfruit. I have a photo of me with jakfruit.
My head lol

Thank YOu. I have had the soft ripe jakfruit too. Its a bitch to ripen. I know that.

I have good knife skills but jackfruit and watermelon are well worth my paying extra for to buy pre-opened so as to avoid wasting money on bad fruit.

SueZ Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I have good knife skills but jackfruit and
> watermelon are well worth my paying extra for to
> buy pre-opened so as to avoid wasting money on bad
> fruit.

I should maybe have added that it's much easier for even very experienced people not to be fooled by these fruits once their innards are made seeable by being sliced open.

Anyone who has ever had a perfect watermelon, and decided at that moment they wanted another one like that one day, has made it their business to memorize it's every visual difference for future reference on recognizing another one should it come along. Unless, of course, they are pretty stupid.

i think i ate jackfruit once or twice a long time ago but i'm not sure... i got it at some exotic fruit stand
is it the one that kind of had a perfume like scent
and it tasted like you were eating fluffy perfume?
it was not very "dense" like papaya or banana
it seemed like it could just float on water
like i was eating some vaguely sweet condensed paper fibers or something..
it was interesting
never ate it again afterwards
did not know it had latex
weird..why ? wow.. latex? not cool... don't want that in my food
foods are strange...so many chemical defense mechanisms

la_veronique Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> i think i ate jackfruit once or twice a long time
> ago but i'm not sure... i got it at some exotic
> fruit stand
> is it the one that kind of had a perfume like
> scent
> and it tasted like you were eating fluffy
> perfume?

It tastes exactly like Juicy Fruit gum used to taste back when that gum was naturally flavored with jackfruit.

I bought a near perfect ripe jackfruit and I realize now I don't have to wait for Browning to confirm ripeness. I discovered that flattened and broadened spikes are best indicator of ripeness. The ripest pieces have a tangerine-pink hue, even in the skin covering seed. The texture of ripe fruit is juicy, whereas texture of unripe fruit is chewey and color is orange with no pinkness.

There is latex in this jackfruit because I didn't let it brown and get mushy but not as bad as an unripe one. Also latex is easily removed from skin with a little oil.
Size is misleading. My fruit was 28 pounds max but the ripest of the 20 or so jackfruits available with some larger.
[youtu.be]

P.s. why did it take me this long to realize this? Because I have been buying peeled jackfruit from Vietnamese fruit stores, $10 for 2 pounds. But i want more fruit than that now. I paid $17 for this jackfruit in the video.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/07/2018 08:05PM by Tai.

And the winner is?

Raw Practicalist:
And the winner is?

Tai:
You can't compare them. Right now frozen durian is $2.49 per pound whole with skin and fresh raw durian whole with the skin is $10 a pound. The frozen durian runs the risk of freezer burn, so not every durian is guaranteed to be good and some will be duds. A small Thai durian can cost $25 (small to me anyway, the malaysians are tiny.)

Meanwhile the jackfruit I bought was either $0.59 or 0.69 per pound. I didn't look closely.

Durian will always be the more luxurious fruit because of its fat content and creaminess. But it will remain a luxury because of the price.

But I have to say that eating a truly sun-ripened jackfruit is ecstasy. It's a delight. Plus it makes you feel good as a human that such a large amount of food can come from a fruit with zero suffering to other beings (even the seeds are nutritious).

Heaven on earth.

Benefits of eating jackfruit seeds.

[drhealthbenefits.com]

[food.ndtv.com]

[www.livestrong.com]

[www.kumuainafarm.com]

Even if someone was strictly raw, they can cook the seeds for animals, such as vegetarian birds. Sometimes when I would run out of birdseed, I would cook quinoa and potato and sprinkle chia and flax on top with some sprouts, and the birds would gobble it down, including wild finches. Animals don't cook food, but they appreciate it when they are starving. Jackfruit seeds have starch like potato. They are a bit like chestnuts.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/16/2018 07:02AM by Tai.

I just bought the best jackfruit I ever had. I didn't know jackfruit could be this delicious. It really is one of the top fruits.

There was a sale for 3 lbs for $1 and there was only one jackfruit left. It was a jackfruit I would never have bought. it had a couple of rotten spots. It had only spikes, no flattened edges. It was long and skinny and not plump. it was about 25 pounds. I bought it because I wanted one but I had no expectations. It didn't have the usual give to indicate ripeness, except for a couple bad spots.

When I opened it, to my surprise all the fruit was tangerine color. Tangerine is my favorite because it's the sweetest and juiciest. I was stumped. The outside would never give you a hint that it was so ripe. I bought a jackfruit last week that was bigger and plumper and had more give and it was all yellow inside and the fruit was firmer not so juicy. Both the fruit last week and this week were from Mexico.

My best guess is that because it's so skinny and long, the sun must have ripened it to peak ripeness. It must have been so well placed on the tree.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/18/2018 07:18PM by Tai.

Ripe fruit bruises easily. By the time it reaches the market the bruise will have become a "rotten spot". This is just what you want.

This is the way it is with the peaches I get from a farmer. She can't sell the ones that have bruised as most customers shun them, but they are the absolutely best ripest ones. She saves them for me at a discounted price but they are worth a premium price.

Jackfruit has the happy drug in it!

I finally discovered the secret to finding my favorite jackfruit, which I consider to be the best jackfruit.

last year I made this video about a jackfruit I randomly bought, but did not understand how to find such a good one again:

The best jackfruit I ever had
[www.youtube.com]

However, I just made a new friend from the Philippines and he told me to look for the color of the peel, and voila, I was able to pick my favorite again and I recorded it:

The secret to picking the best jackfruit

[www.youtube.com]

I saw an article today on Mercola's site entitled

This Meat Substitute Now Cherished by Vegetarians and Vegans

It's about jackfruit.

According to our meatloving Mercola, it tastes like something known as pulled pork if you cook it for an hour. Well, I have been out of the meat loop for so long that I don't even know what it is, thankfully. Last time I encountered pig meat it was in the form of pork chops or bacon but now people have it "pulled" for them. Any recent pork eaters here who can explain what pulled pork is? And how it compares to long-cooked jackfruit? I could go and search for it but I would rather hear it first hand from someone who has seen the light.

Mercola describes cooked jackfruit as wildly satiating. Gee, thanks.

Horsea
I could go and search for it but I would rather hear it first hand from someone who has seen the light.

Tai
I only know about pulled pork because when I was cleaning my friend's car, I saw empty containers of pulled pork from Whole Foods. My friend died of brain cancer. Before he died, I looked up about pork and found that the growth hormones and drugs they give pigs hurts their brains and the humans who eat them will absorb those chemicals, which will also hurt humans' brains. My friend (who was a big meat eater) also regularly used his cell phone to his head and had been a lifelong painter (inhaling fumes) and past smoker. By the way, he didn't change his diet or go natural after his cancer diagnosis and he only did surgery,nothing else (no herbs, no supplements). Disaster and tragedy.

I had a relative who was a pork eater and it was discovered he had those pork tapeworm cysts in his joints. The worst is when they go to the brain. It is pure evil for those raw meat eaters to encourage raw pork eating.

So back to faux pulled pork. You can watch youtube videos. I have never done it but the videos show to shred the jackfruit and slow cook with barbeque sauce. The sauce evaporates so it's not too saucy. Ok but this is not really a health food at all. The only way to make this recipe is to use canned jack fruit. Canned food is not healthy at all. The only canned food that is healthy is from a glass jar but all the canned jackfruit is from tin cans in health food stores. Maybe that will change one day. If you use fresh jackfruit, it's too sweet. It's too ripe and mature. I have never seen fresh immature jackfruit sold. All the indian restaurants that i have visited that serve cooked jackfruit use canned jackfruit to make their dishes. Isn't that deceptive when restaurants used canned food? I was so disappointed to learn that. Why go to a restaurant if they can't get fresh immature jackfruit? It's a rip off.

I was raised never eating pork or shellfish and then I became vegan, so I find pork esoecially nasty. But I watched the videos to find an alternative to that disgusting pulled pork that can seriously harm people, in case a loved one is interested to give up pork.

To make raw vegan dishes with jackfruit, open the jackfruit when still green. It will still be sweet, and there will be a LOT of latex. Shred this green jackfruit and you can use that as a "meat" substitute, such as in raw vegan tacos. Marinating will be best over some hours to shrink it down.

BY the way, I was too excited when I proclaimed the secret to getting the best jackfruit in my last video. It should have just said orange jackfruit. Honestly, variety is the spice of life. I actually enjoy a yellow jackfruit at times, because they are more mild and neutral. I wouldn't want to only eat super sweet lucious orange jackfruit all the time. Since making that video, there have been times when I preferred eating the yellow. I just wasn't up for uber sweet.

Many thanx for all that interesting info. What a ghastly way to find out about pulled pork (your sick friend's death). I read your comments of 2015, really detailed & informative. I really would like to try some jackfruit, now. Hope it is better smelling than durian. Dr. Nandi lists lots of benefits of jackfruit but mentions this as well:

Jackfruit may inhibit sexual arousal, libido and vigor in men.

Maybe. But no more than a diabetes-inducing typical diet: lots of pork ribs in heavy sauce at The Smoking Pig with alcohol to wash it down and balance out the unsettling piggy animal-ness you feel. Diabetes 20 years later? Not to worry. A prescription for Dixafailin will help you feel normal again.