I’ve seen these tropical fruits, which in a whole state look like pillow-sized pine cones, for a long time, and a local store had a slice for $3 today (the whole fruit can cost upwards of $100) so I decided to try it. The cashier said she’d never tried it, but it was a popular item so she agreed that it must be tasty.
I have heard that it can be eaten raw, and if it’s cooked with BBQ sauce, it’s supposed to be a vegan alternative to pulled pork. The seeds can also be eaten if they’re roasted first.
What does the hive mind think about this? What is your favorite way to eat it?
Update: I unwrapped it and started eating it - I have enough for a few more servings - and was totally unprepared for the latex-like sap oozing out of the core. My hands and the knife were quite sticky, and some oil took care of that.
The fruit itself is very starchy and vaguely banana-flavored. I’m going to boil the seeds and see what they taste like. It was OK, but I don’t think I’ll buy the fresh fruit again. Canned? Maybe.
I like jackfruit and buy it when I see it in stores. But I’ve never bought a whole one. Even taking the ratio of edible to non-edible parts into account, an entire jackfruit is more than I would care to eat. Fortunately, I am able to buy it by the slice.
It’s common in Southeast Asia, where I lived for 9 years. I hardly ever saw it being eaten on its own. If raw, it was mixed with ice and coconut milk and other sweet ingredients. Or it was cooked with coconut milk or sugar syrup. I’ve also seen it made into ice cream.
My opinion? Meh…like you I might buy a can or jar but I’m not interested in it fresh.
My vegan son uses it a lot in his cooking when he wants something toothsome. Apparently, it is pretty versatile due to its blandness and texture. A quick look online will give some recipe ideas.
We tried some in Jamaica years ago at an outdoor market. I remember we rinsed our hands in kerosene or something afterwards to get the stickiness off. I have zero memory of the flavor.
My wife wanted to try one but our local Kroger never carried it. Then one day they had a single jackfruit the size of a medium watermelon. It was $19, which surprised me. I guess even with such a large exotic fruit I was expecting something more watermelon priced.
The taste, as mentioned, was very bland. We thought maybe we had gotten an unripe one but maybe that’s just how they taste. My wife boiled the seed pods and those were the best part of the fruit. Kind of nutty tasting. The taste plus the consistency of the seed pods was like eating a big chick pea.
As it happens, the other day The New York Times ran this article (paywall warning) about jackfruit and included a recipe for a South Indian jackfruit dish. The article mentions oiling a knife prior to cutting up the fresh fruit, and that the canned stuff is a lot more convenient.
FYI, there is ripe jackfruit and underripe jackfruit, and they are very different. The underripe kind is used as a meat substitute; it has a mild, savory flavor and a texture like pulled pork. The ripe kind is sweeter, with a fruitier taste and texture. I’ve only seen the ripe kind for sale as a whole or cut fresh fruit; the underripe kind I’ve only seen in cans. Which is fine for me, because it’s much neater that way and tastes fine. I love jackfruit as a meat substitute. Only downside is it doesn’t have much protein compared to other meat substitutes like tofu, tempeh, and seitan.
Not too bad, though one might not survive having one fall on them from out of a tree.
I have eaten fresh jackfruit found at the base of a jackfruit tree in Rio de Janeiro. Sticky, and tasty, but way too messy. Far better, at least in my wife’s opinion, is the custard apple, a similar fruit that is much smaller, tastier, and has no sticky sap.
I once heard that the mystery fruit flavor of Juicy Fruit gum is jackfruit, and that seems not far off.
I adore jackfruit and ate it all the time when I lived in Indonesia - you could buy it prepared, with skin/seed/membrane removed and nothing but the delicious, delicious arils. It didn’t keep well, though - if it wasn’t eaten with a couple of days of purchase it got all slimy and rotten.
A little while ago someone gave me a whole jackfruit so I cut it all up. It was A LOT of work and I didn’t oil the knife first, so getting the sap off of it afterward was gawd-awful. But the arils freeze nicely so I put a big bag into the freezer and just grabbed a few for a snack while it lasted.
The seeds make a truly delicious hummus-like dip. I forget exactly how I made it - I just looked on line at a few recipes like this one and made up my own version, probably with lots of cumin and olive oil (but sadly no garlic as my partner hates garlic). It was a lot like a flavorful, nutty, refried bean dip. That alone made the insane effort of wrestling with the entire jackfruit worthwhile.
I live in Houston, TX and am originally from India. Jackfruit, unripe and ripe are two entirely different things. (BTW Both are available in Houston widely) The closest I can think of is unripe papaya or unripe plantain which has a totally different flavor profile than the ripe one.
Unripe Jackfruit : This is sold as a vegetable in Chinese, Vietnamese and Indian stores. How can you tell if it is unripe - well when you cut it you will see latex dripping. Do not buy Unripe Jackfruit from mainstream American chain stores - they are never unripe,
If you want to try the unripe kind, I’d suggest you get the canned variety sold at Indian stores. You can use the big pieces to substitute for meat in many Indian recipes.
Ripe Jackfruit is a fruit and ideally you’d want it to get really ripe (like a banana) for it have its fully flavor and texture profile, You can wrap it in newspapers and put it under the bed (the whole house will smell though) until it ripens. When you cut it apart, wear latex gloves to fish out fruit pieces with the seed embedded in them. The seeds are good roasted.
Around 30% of the ripe jackfruit is edible, most needs to thrown away. For the unripe jackfruit, about 80% is edible.
Custard apple - are you referring to pawpaws? There are some people in my area who grow them, but apparently the fruit is too fragile and perishable to be sold commercially, even at a farmer’s market. I’ve never had them, but I have heard they are delicious.
Jackfruit is everywhere in Thailand, and it is eaten on its own. One of my favorite fruits, but the quality varies widely. A lot of times it’s too dry. I can imagine someone getting that and wondering what all the fuss is about.