# Best way to ripen peaches?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-ripen-peaches/638661
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [October 23, 2012, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-ripen-peaches/638661 "2012-10-23T20:49:02Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)
#### Post date: [October 23, 2012, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-ripen-peaches/638661/1 "2012-10-23T20:49:02Z")
So, supermarkets have fresh peaches pretty much all year round, although when you buy them they are as hard as the stones inside.
So we leave them out on the counter for maybe 3 days, and we check them every day, and as soon as there is any give at all in the flesh, we have to eat them, or put them in the refrigerator.
The trouble is, all the off-season peaches we have had this year have been mealy, tasteless messes. They are not over-ripe when we try to eat them, in fact they are barely ripe at all.
Is there a better way to ripen peaches other than leaving them out on the counter? Or should we just eschew fresh peaches until they are in season again?
Roddy
---
### Author:  [@melondeca](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/melondeca)
#### Post date: [October 23, 2012, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-ripen-peaches/638661/2 "2012-10-23T20:51:39Z")
My family always ripened them in brown paper bags. It seemed to work pretty well as long as you didn’t forget about them.
---
### Author:  [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [October 23, 2012, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-ripen-peaches/638661/3 "2012-10-23T20:56:49Z")
I use sunlight to ripen a lot of fruit. Don’t know about peaches though. The paper bag thing works also. Toss some bananas in because they’ve been treated with ethylene(?) gas as a ripener.
---
### Author:  [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)
#### Post date: [October 23, 2012, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-ripen-peaches/638661/4 "2012-10-23T21:00:09Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#):
>
> The trouble is, all the off-season peaches we have had this year have been mealy, tasteless messes. They are not over-ripe when we try to eat them, in fact they are barely ripe at all.
Have you ever had an off-season Peach that _was_ good? I haven’t. Ever.
---
### Author:  [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)
#### Post date: [October 23, 2012, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-ripen-peaches/638661/5 "2012-10-23T21:20:51Z")
I just read a tip in Cook’s Illustrated (but haven’t tried it) to put unripe peaches, or other hard fruit, in a paper back with a ripe banana to ripen the peach more quickly.
---
### Author:  [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [October 23, 2012, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-ripen-peaches/638661/6 "2012-10-23T21:35:41Z")
> [@madmonk28](#):
>
> I just read a tip in Cook’s Illustrated (but haven’t tried it) to put unripe peaches, or other hard fruit, in a \*\*paper back \*\*with a ripe banana to ripen the peach more quickly.
Won’t the fruit get crushed?
---
### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [October 23, 2012, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-ripen-peaches/638661/7 "2012-10-23T21:37:38Z")
> [@TriPolar](#):
>
> Won’t the fruit get crushed?
Not if you hollow the book out first. Duh.