Ripe Wood Apple has a sweet flavor while unripe ones have a Sour taste. if you want to eat a Wood apple without adding any artificial flavor it’s better to select a ripe Wood apple. Because it’s difficult to handle the sour taste of unripe fruit.
Both ripe and raw Wood apples are the same size with a hard shell. Therefore it’s really difficult to separate ripe ones from others. By following this guide you can pick the best Wood apples from anywhere and become a Wood apple expert.
1.How do you know when a Wood apple is ripe?
Ripe Wood apples’ shell color varies from light brown to dark brown concerning its ripeness. Emits a strong stench of rotten blue cheese with an overripe banana. If emits a musty smell then it’s rotten. Have black scratches on the shell and have a soft dark brown flesh with edible seeds.
Also if it is ripened by shaking the fruit we can hear the moving sound of the flesh inside. The main difference between ripe and unripe Wood apples is, unripe ones have yellowish-green color while ripe Wood apples have a brownish color.
All ripe ones are not good for eating because overripen wood apples have a musty smell and also some fungus variety is growing inside the shell. Also, the tip of the nuts has fungus. So be careful when selecting ripe fruits over rotten Wood apples.
The taste of the ripened Wood apple in the tree itself is sweeter than the ripened Wood apples made by the previously picked unripe Wood apples. Because they have a more sour taste.
If you can remove the shell, you can identify the ripe Wood apples from unripe ones. If you see the flesh is light brown in color don’t select it. Because they are still not ripped. Unripe Wood apple flesh is pale yellow in color. They taste sour more.
2.How do you ripen Wood apples at home?
If you want to buy Wood apple for an event next week then it’s useless to buy ripe ones today. Normally unripe Wood apples picked from trees take up to 10 days to ripe. Therefore you can decide to buy unripe or half-ripened Wood apples.
If you failed to choose ripe Wood apple then you have to speed up the ripping process. Here are some of the steps that you can follow.
- Put Wood apples into a paper bag and seal it, wait for several days( Don’t use polythene bags it will rotten the fruit)
- you can dip the nuts in water for 3-4 days. It will extremely speed up the ripping process. But check the ripeness from time to time otherwise it will overripe.
3.How do you preserve wood apple fruit?
If the shells are not cracked Wood apples can be preserved for up to 10 days in the refrigerator. If not you can mix the pulp with lime, store it in the freezer. Also can store for a much longer time by making fruit bars, Jams, and jellies.
And also there is a new special method to preserve ripe Wood apple with the shell itself by following these steps.
For this process, we need a 4% sodium bicarbonate solution. to make it you need 10 grams of baking soda and 250ml water. By mixing these two components we can make a 4% Sodium bicarbonate solution.
next, by using a small brush apply the solution to the tip of the Wood apple shell. Also, sprinkle the solution around the shell, don’t dip the Wood apples in the solution. Next, keep them dry otherwise fungus is developing in the outer shell. Now you have completed the process.
By placing them at room temperature you can preserve Wood apple for nearly about 21 days. You can preserve them for about 2 months by storing them in the refrigerator.
If you like to drink Wood apple juice then you can mix the pulp with water and add sugar, salt, lime as you need. But you cant preserve Wood apple juice for more than 2-3 days.
4.Can we eat an unripe Wood apple?
Normally it’s difficult to find 100% good Wood apple. If you got unripe Wood apple don’t worry you can eat unripe ones too. And also Some people like sour flavor than sweet flavor. For these people, this is the best choice.
Unripe wood apples can be clearly identified by the yellowish-green color shell with pale white color pulp and edible seeds inside. If you can handle the complex sour and acidic flavor then you can eat the unripe Wood apple. You can add some salt, sugar, or honey to reduce the sourness and it adds a new flavor.
The advantage of picking unripe fruit is you can ripe them at home. If you like to taste sour and sweet flavor at ones then you can half ripen the fruit. Not only that but also you can preserve Wood apple for a long period of time.
The disadvantage of selecting unripe Wood apples is that if you try to ripe unripe Wood apples picked from trees before riping them themselves in the tree, you can’t taste the real taste of Wood apple.
5.Is wood apple good for health?
Wood apples used due to their high nutritious value. Also, it’s a replacement for energy and weight loss drinks.
Wood apple consists of Riboflavin and Thiamine with detoxifying power, which protects kidneys from diseases and boosts liver health. With fiber in Wood apple, reduce bloating and shedding in the initial weight of water in the body.
Summary
If you need to pick a good wood Wood apple from the market it’s better to choose ripe Wood apples. Ripen Wood apples in the tree are sweeter than other ones. ( ripe ones fall from the tree when they get ripen ).
By mixing Honey, sugar, salt, lime you can change the flavor with your preference. we cant get Wood apple throughout the year. If you need to eat a Wood apple daily you can follow preservation methods.
