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Old 08-12-2016, 02:51 PM   #2 (permalink)
Gabe15
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Default Re: What's the difference?

I don't have time for a full answer right now, but in regards to your first question, there is really no biological difference between desert and cooking bananas, it is basically all cultural. All bananas start out starchy when under ripe, and the starch converts to sugar when ripe. The amount of starch that remains at various ripeness stages is variable between cultivars, and other aspects of the fruit can be different too, but none of dictates if they are cooked or not, that's a human construction. Many cultivars are used both as dessert and for cooking. What's more important is having the right cultivar at the right stage for the recipe you're going for. A good example is 'Namwah', in the US it's mostly used as a dessert fruit, in SE Asia it's often regarded as dual use, and in East Africa it's used almost exclusively for brewing beer, but it's the exact same fruit. Even Plantains may be eaten raw ripe with no ill effect. The usage must be considered in the cultural context it's presented in. I always like to explain it simply as that "bananas don't come with instructions, and you may use them how you please".

The commonly repeated info that certain genome groups contain sweet or starchy bananas, and that it correlates to cooking or desert use is extremely over simplified and only holds up under a relatively narrow set of contexts, in the real banana world it's just not true.
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Last edited by Gabe15 : 08-12-2016 at 02:55 PM.
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