The Science of Bananas (And Our Ultimate Six-Banana Banana Bread) | What's Eating Dan?
Вставка
- Опубліковано 16 чер 2022
- Bananas are ubiquitous, but there's a lot more to them than meets the eye. Follow along as Dan breaks down the science of bananas and how to make our ultimate banana bread recipe.
Get the recipe for Ultimate Banana Bread: cooks.io/3sq0VxL
www.rainforest-alliance.org/
Follow Dan on Instagram: / testcook
Follow Dan on Twitter: / testcook
Follow Dan on Facebook: / dansouzacooksillustrated
ABOUT US: Located in Boston’s Seaport District in the historic Innovation and Design Building, America's Test Kitchen features 15,000 square feet of kitchen space including multiple photography and video studios. It is the home of Cook’s Illustrated magazine and Cook’s Country magazine and is the workday destination for more than 60 test cooks, editors, and cookware specialists. Our mission is to test recipes over and over again until we understand how and why they work and until we arrive at the best version.
If you like us, follow us:
cooksillustrated.com
/ cooksillustrated
/ testkitchen
/ cooksillustrated
/ testkitchen
I'm a heavily speckled 7! Can't wait to learn your preferences.
Highly speckled 5/6. I’ll eat an underripe banana, sure, but I won’t enjoy it.
Dan, I love the history and the recipe of the banana bread. But where’s the SCIENCE I was promised?!?! How am I supposed to know how various cooking techniques uniquely affect the development of my banana-flavor?
Also: Perfectly speckled 8 for me!
I want my banana as green and grassy as possible. If it's any more ripe than that, it's not food. So Green, 9. Sweet bananas are the worst. I do have to add a caveat... this is talking about the Cavendish....I have had and liked other varieties at little bit more ripe but still prefer towards the firm side. Oh and same goes for pears. I like my pears to be green and wooden and taste like grass. Sweet juicy pears make me sad.
Light to Highly speckled 8. I flat refuse to eat any banana with ANY green on it. I can tolerate a yellow if I have to.
Lightly speckled 7
I'm a yellow-green to yellow guy and strong 9. I MIGHT go green-yellow, but NEVER speckled, so those are destined for the bread. As a cool sidebar: you can freeze your overripes for storage for breadmaking... And once thawed, they come out just like the ones you mentioned in the bread recipe!
The production value of Dan’s videos is so high. I hope others notice. Funny, adorable, and informative. His videos have it all. Much respect. I’m a 6 yellow, and I can’t wait to grill my next slice. What a novel idea.
He writes and records himself talking, buys some bananas, and uses stock footage. It's enough, it isn't anything extraordinary.
That banana bread recipe got the foody in me to tingle. Reducing banana juice. GENIUS!
Did you try reducing the banana juice for the bread?
Yes I don't do it any other way now. Banana bread is extra flavorful.@@catalystcomet
Heavily speckled/frozen. SO freaking good. Also amazing sprinkled with Medaglia d'oro espresso powder, or cinnamon. Coffee + banana = magic.
Yellow/Green 7. Could honestly say 8 though. Gotta have some green in the banana; I'll eat yellow if that's all that's available, lightly speckled if I'm desperate. I don't like when it's overly sweet, and I think the slight tartness is very nice. Can't go too green though, otherwise you get that weird cottonmouth feeling. Would love to know what that's about, Dan!
this is the correct answer
@@lbdeuce this is the correct response to the correct answer.
Yellow with a trace of green here as well, 8/10. Sweetness is a factor, but it's more of a texture thing for me. There needs to be some bite, mushiness in a banana is awful.
That's the starch. The greener, the starchier. It's good for your gut microbiome. You can't digest it but your bacteria can.
To amend my previous statement of support; there is definitely a thing as too green. When they cross the threshold from mealy to toothsome they have reached their zenith.
The perfect eating banana...fully ripe and perfectly yellow, no speckles, no green. This state only lasts a day or two, at which point I allow them to get heavily speckled and proceed to make banana bread or banana cake, which is absolutely delicious.
Agreed. More ripe and the texture is off and better for baking/smoothies. Maybe a tinge of light green but it gets a bit too firm from that point. But there is a reason the pure yellow banana is seen as the gold standard. As far as preference, I'd say its somewhere in the 8-9 range.
All I can say is this is awesome. What's Eating Dan? is by far my favorite ATK series! I love learning new things about food. Thanks Dan!
Thanks for watching!
Great video. I love the humor, and Dan's timing was excellent. This banana bread looks amazing, and frying a slice in a lot of butter sounds delicious. I will have to try this. Thanks Dan, and the entire team 👍
My whole concept of how to make good banana bread has been flipped upside down. Thank you
I have made their recipe, I recommend it highly.
Yellow with a hint of green is the perfect banana for me, I'll go to yellow in a pinch. After that, they're only good for baking.
I always have a zip lock bag of frozen bananas in the freezer for emergencies 😋
The recipe looks delicious, especially intriguing is the concentrated juice (which one always gets with frozen bananas)!
Finally, some good opinions on banana ripeness /lh
Hmm... "emergencies..."🤔
in the yellow with a hint of green camp for eating. thou don't mind light speckle, then its off to banana bread.
@@earlybird9679
Yup, when ya gotta have banana bread, or banana cake....!
frozen bananas? I bet you've tried the Vegan Nice Cream, can't wait to try that soon! :)
there is literally no better food content anywhere on the planet than What's Eating Dan. thank you forever and ever I'm hungry x x x
I love bananas in smoothies but getting them at their prime is tough. I usually buy a bunch, let them ripen to my liking, then peel and place them in a large zipper top bag and smash them into a puree. I then cut a corner off the bag and pipe them into ice cube trays and freeze. Now I've got perfectly sweet and uniform cubes that blend perfectly every time and stay at their peak flavor for months.
I love bananas of every ripeness! As a cyclist they are my favorite source of carb/sugars. Yellow with a bit of green holds up best in a pocket, but the ease of digestion and increased sugars cannot be ignored in a heavily speckled. I use a lot of overripe for baking energy bars, blended with dates and oats. I always have 2-3 bunches on my counter, in a rainbow of ripeness. :)
I love Dan! I love this episode! Yellow with some green about 6.5. Peel from the bottom and remove the dark bit before eating. And, yes, I peel away the veins 🤐
What's eating Dan is really informative and entertaining food science...that will be my new banana bread recipe! Keep up the good work Dan!
I'm so pleased to see so many fellow yellow/green banana lovers! My husband loves lightly to highly speckled and thinks I'm crazy. I just can't stomach the sweetness or mushy texture of a fully ripe banana. Yellow/green and 9/10 all the way!!!
Same here. I can't stand the sweet taste or mush of ripe bananas. 😊
yes me too
Of course, I’m here to see another episode of ‘What’s Eating Dan?’ because it is simply the best.
My mom would make banana oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. They were always my favorite- blend of 2 great desserts! Loved the homage to the 90s 🤣
Ooooiooioo
I'm intrigued ... now off to see if I can find a recipe for this.
I'm a lightly speckled 5, and when my bananas get past the heavily speckled stage I peel them and put them in a ziplock bag and freeze them, use them for smoothies. Could use them for banana bread too I suppose, but smoothies are much easier and faster. 1 frozen banana, a cup of frozen mixed berries, milk, and several dashes of Triple Sec, blend thoroughly. I almost always add protein powder to the mix before blending. Yum!
Triple sec and protein powder? Looking for a new gym buddy perhaps...
You had me at Mr.Rogers 🥰 He was a decorated army vet.and he had quite a few tattoos 🤣really ☺️a man of God as well and an exemplary role model for a tremendous number of us 💜☮️ BTW,Dan, you're doing pretty well too😏
I'm always up for a good banana bread recipe. This one looks like one to try. And I'll be honest, I'm also here because Dan is absolutely the cutest 😉
Yeah I agree! Lol
Me too ✋
I’m a slightly green banana lover. It’s firm and will hold up to peanut butter better. But I will eat a heavily speckled banana too. I’ll have to try one with cheese. Sounds intriguing!
Great in Smoothies not overpowering sweetness or flavor that washes out other flavors ! Yup solid 3/4 ish .
Smuckers peanut butter makes nearly everything taste better!
I don't eat the slightly green banana Merle also go up to heavily speckled if it's black I'll save it for baking
Dan, when did you get so comical? Truly entertaining! Keep up the great work!
When mine start to ripen past the yellow phase.......peeled, halved, and into the freezer❄️ they go for a smoothie or a dip in some melted dark chocolate in the not-so-distant future. 9 firm on the eating another color. 🍌 if any, it would be toward green.
Black to speckled is for bread 🍞 🙋🏻♀️. I like my chocolate dark, not my bananas. Varieties other than Cavendish? Bring it on! I’ve tried before. In the tropics. And my curiosity was very piqued when you mentioned a variety that tastes like vanilla! Sounds like some good frozen bananas to me. And banana ice cream. And of course just regular eating. We have so many good things to eat. What a blessing.
FUN FACT: Over 7,500 varieties of apples in the world, too. 🍎 🍏
Lightly speckled 5. That banana bread recipe sounds amazing
Wow, another great episode, loved it! So happy that I support this great group of people by being a Cooks Illustrated subscriber.
I love this banana bread recipe!! I have made it several times it’s absolutely the best!!
Lightly speckled 7. I thoroughly enjoy all ATK vids, but absolutely watch all of What’s Eating Dan. You da best, Dan.
I'd say that I'm a yellow/green 4, though the more brown, the less into it I am, at least eaten in the hand. For something like muffins or bread, yeah, gimme those brown bananas, maybe toss in a green one for a hint of that tartness.
As for peaches, I actually prefer mine slightly under-ripe, with a little bit of bite, and more of that tartness left.
Thanks Dan! Another great one - fun and interesting.
Lightly speckled 5. Very much grateful for the lesson Dan!
I tried this banana bread recipe a few years ago when I saw it on ATK.
It’s good. But I, personally, don’t find it to be any better than a standard banana bread recipe. And it’s a lot of extra steps.
Reducing the banana liquid takes time, and you have to babysit it so it won’t burn.
I cook and bake A LOT (not professionally). This recipe is too finicky for my cookbook.
Don’t, get me wrong. I have recipes that take Days. But the time investment has to match the results.
I’ve got a recipe that’s just as good as this one, that you dump all of the ingredients in a bowl, mix, pan, bake.
Still love the show Dan
I agree, but like you, I'm going to make this. Kinda fun, new recipes. Maybe even make two, with one being my standard naner bread. Side by side test.
Agreed. This recipe looks wonderful, but there's absolutely no way I'm going to make it. I'm super interested in your easy recipe though, if you wouldn't mind sharing it!
@@bonniewylie3287
I don’t write anything down. Which means things frequently don’t taste exactly the same. But here’s my basic recipe.
350 degrees, 60 minutes, loaf pan.
1 stick butter melted, 1C sugar, 2eggs, 1tsp vanilla ex. Mix together
Combine 1 1/2C Flour, 1tsp baking soda, 1/2tsp salt. Dump into wet mix.
Stir in 1/2C sour cream, 2 over ripe bananas. Dump in greased pan. Bake.
Modifications : you can add a topping before baking like Sliced bananas, crumble topping, cinnamon sugar, or whatever. Also, a bananas foster type topping after baking. Sliced bananas with a little sugar dusting brûléed. And a basting of Brandy if you want.
I’m always experimenting.
@@rich4501 Fantastic! Thank you!!
I did the same thing when I saw that Mr Rogers episode! I loved the banana and cheese together, and my mom thought I was nuts. Definitely try it... it's delicious!
I prefer straight yellow, but will eat bananas from slightly green to heavily speckled. I love using the dark brown ones in smoothies, ice cream and baked goods.
Yellow with a hint of green ❣️
Good balance of sweet and “tartness”…..😋
Your recipe sounds so tasty;
definitely goin to give it a try!
I shall add walnuts to the recipe🌷
Thank you so much !!!!!
Dan is always very informative and entertaining! Keep up the great work!
Another delightful episode Dan. I had never thought about banana strings as part of the vascular system.. Cool. I'm a yellow six (it's a texture thing). Everything else I incorporate into baked goods. Mentally doing the Macarena. What an earworm!
Dan- great work as always! I, too, am a highly-speckled 7 and would consider eating a lightly-speckled banana. I do prefer VERY ripe - brown bananas for baking banana bread . Can’t wait to try your recipe!
Anywhere between yellow with hint of green to heavily speckled. My favorite is lightly specked. That banana bread recipe is my go to for a number of years! I even brown the butter I add to it.
Bananas are my favorite fruit! I eat them every day! I’m a “between lightly and heavily speckled 6”. But I also eat them frozen all the time as well. They go with everything good: peanut butter, honey, chocolate, ice cream!
I don't know if there's a way to verify this, but I'd always heard that the reason artificial banana flavoring (like in candy) tastes different than 'real' bananas is primarily because of the slight difference in flavors between the Gros Michel and Cavendish bananas i.e. confectioners are still using flavoring that was formulated to taste like Gros Michel bananas. Sounds legit, but I don't know if there's an easy way to test it anymore.
I've heard this too!! While for some of us (myself included) it would be difficult to get a Gros Michel to taste test, there are still some places where where it's more common, like indonesia, thailand, and singapore.
It's true! I actually ordered some Gros Michel bananas from Miami Fruit just to taste them. They really did taste like the "fake" banana flavoring.
The story is a little different, but same idea. Isoamyl acetate is the chemical compound that's used to make artificial banana flavor. This was found and marketed before anyone knew that isoamyl acetate was actually in bananas, and was originally used as a Jargonelle pear flavoring in the UK, where the isoamyl acetate flavor was more closely associated with a pear. That variety of pear wasn't common in the US, so the people marketing the stuff decided to sell it as banana flavor. Part of what made this close enough for the American market was that gros michel bananas had a higher concentration of isoamyl acetate than the modern cavendish, so it's a coincidental peek into the banana flavor of the past rather than an intentional one.
Cool article: www.sciencefriday.com/articles/why-dont-banana-candies-taste-like-real-bananas/
@@TheChumm I knew that the gros michel has higher amounts of that compound, thus closer to the artificial flavor than the cavindish, but this is the first I've heard the flavor was discovered separately! Now I really really want to try that kind of pear...
One major element I believe why many artificial flavorings taste different is that they just identify one or some of the chemicals in the actual food, and use that chemical. While in most foods there are several different chemicals that contribute to taste. So you're only getting a pretty one dimensional approximation of the flavor.
Great info as always, Dan.
I'm a yellow with a hint of green 7, I hate the texture after the yellow stage, so those go into my smoothies and baked goods.
I've made that banana bread recipe many times. Always turns out great. Great banana flavour!
Dan, I’m a highly speckled 7 also. My husband will eat them closer to green but not me. I’ve got to try that banana bread recipe. Sounds wonderful. Thanks for all the great information you provide.
Years ago, I started freezing bananas that were past their prime for my family to eat. I did this right in the skin and when I was ready to make banana bread or muffins, I simply thawed them. Their consistency changes and their flavor is elevated or condensed. Frankly, they look like something you’d throw in the trash, but it’s the key to my often requested recipe.
like banana fudgecicles!
Jaques Pepin has a great recipe for banana ice cream made in a food processor. It's basically a couple of ripe bananas, a couple of sliced & frozen, a dollop of sour cream, and a spoon of brown sugar. It's seriously good. (I leave out the mint.)
@@bobbystrother3666 they more so resemble something you’d throw in the trash !
Super love adding in the reality of where our food comes from with respect to the labor needed to deliver what we can easily grab at a grocery store. Bravo!
Yellow with a touch of green and a 10! Always peel the strings. Also I love dividing them into vertical thirds, our Dad showed us how to in the late 60’s and I still think it is so cool!
Really like your style and learn lots. I’m a yellow to light speckle -7 but will eat heavy if desperate. Definitely gonna try the recipe out. Keep up the great job
Growing up in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains I ate a lot of yellow to heavily speckled bananas. Then after spending a considerable amount of time in Costa Rica (doing tropical field biology work) I started to develop a taste for a light green to yellow bananas. On another note, as a ecology nerd I liked how you identified the flower of the banana. (YEA!!) Most, do not realize that the "banana tree" is actually an herb plant and it more is related to ginger that a fruit tree.
I'm a yellow with green / green with yellow. But, I love bananas..5 You can't eat them fast enough to keep them at your favorite ripeness. Never let a banana go to waste (I don't care HOW ripe it is) . Have you tried banana bread with walnuts and raisins..oh yum.
Pecans or walnuts, with or without chocolate chips. Never used raisins, I'll give it a try.
Yellow with a trace of green. Eating by itself, a 10. Adding to recipes, it varies
Dan, your videos are brilliant and always make me smile. #proud2bcia!
A touch of green as bananas lose their starch as they ripen, and the fructose increases as you told us. This starch is primarily resistant starch and high in fiber. You can also eat a green banana peel, creating all types of savory dishes, like pulled-non-chicken sandwiches 🥪 😋 or green banana biomass, which adds moisture and a wonderful texture when added to the batter of baked goods. Check it out, you'll be glad you did.
I'm a yellow 3! Yellow is the best, but I'd still eat anything ranging from green with a bit of yellow to lightly speckled.
Also, I'm excited to try the new banana bread recipe!
I admire your easy-going banana palate.
@DanielJSouza great Vid! 🍌Where’s the recipe? I wanna make this for visitors next weekend ❤.
We watch your cooking all the time and enjoy “heading to the lab” to practice 🍌
A hint of green and 5 for dedication. Thanks for the video!
Thank you for the great information 👍
Ah, Bananas! The cornerstone of every Bengali Household and or Tiffin Box. It’s basically a family member at this point.
Yellow about a 6 I think. I'm willing to eat up to a heavily speckled or a yellow with a bit of green, but if I can I do prefer lightly speckled/yellow for flavor-firmness balance. No way would I eat a mostly/all green banana though. Or black. Even heavily speckled is sometimes a little too mushy really.
Same banana preference for me too! Firmness is really important to me, I don't like it too soft.
Yes! I've been telling people about Mr. Rogers' cheese/banana hack my entire life and most people either don't believe that I saw it on his show or just think it's gross; it's actually the perfect snack.
I am 70 and have always liked heavily speckled bananas.
One of my favorite banana tricks was taught to me forty years ago by a botanist girlfriend. Bananas are a three segmented fruit and each segment processes sugar at a slightly different rate. Divide the segments by pushing your finger into the tip of the banana. My friend would divide up two or three bananas, pick the sweetest segments out, then make a gourmet banana split. The dividing trick is fun to show kids, in line with your Mr. Rogers reference.
I’ll be your buddy in all things bananas! Between my tears stocking organic produce aisles of Northern California and time spent traipsing through Costa Rica, I have experienced most (if not all) of the varieties you highlighted. The national “dish” of Costa Rica is called “Casado” meaning “marriage” and includes fried plantains with rice and beans. It’s delicious! Perhaps y’all can feature it sometime.
I have yet to fry up any banana bread and serve with ice cream. But I have enough very ripe ones on hand to get cracking!
Highly speckled 7 seems right for me too. As for banana bread, I’ve got lots of tricks but the best trick is to caramelize the bananas (similar to caramelized carrots in modernist cuisine). There is far better flavor with that version. By the way centrifuging caramelized bananas yields a ‘banana water’ that is most incredible. Great to add a drop or two to any bowl of ice cream or to use in a recipe where you want an amazing banana flavor without any other evidence besides the flavor of bananas at all.
Same. Banana soul mates!
I have to try caramelized banana bread now. Thank you!
Yellow 3, I love everything from lightly green to heavily speckled but right in the middle is my favorite
Never seen banana bread made like this. Can’t wait to try it!
It would have been interesting to see the episode come full circle and try using that banana bread with deli american and making a grilled cheese on banana bread.
Long time listener, first time caller; I love your content Dan! I wish I could subscribe to just select ATK presenters (read: What's Eating Dan?)...
I'm a big fan of this discussion about favorite banana ripeness. We definitely talk about this in my family but I didn't realize it was hotly debated. I'm a 9 "yellow with a trace of green" so I'd also eat "green with a trace of yellow" or yellow but that's it. The biggest issue for me once the speckling starts is the smell/taste of all that extra sugar. BUT if I miss my window, then I'll let them get to heavily speckled and freeze for banana bread.
I love the Mr Rogers inspired music. I'm a lightly speckled 8, also artificial banana flavoring (like laffy taffy) was developed in the 1950s based on the gros Michele banana, which is why it tastes so different than our standard Cavendish bananas today. 🍌🍞
Yellow 10, can't go any other way. Thanks for this video, it's delightful.
I am one that prefers yellow with some green (I think a two on your graph up to possibly a three?) After that, they are good for banana bread, but I can't take their riper texture any other way. And thankfully, now you have given us this new recipe to try. I may need to add chopped walnuts and mini choc chips, though.
Dan, this was such a charming and informative episode! Love your work.
Does it seem churlish of me to point out that I think you mean Six-Banana Banana Bread in the title? (Yeah, I guess I’m That Guy. Sorry!)
FO FANNA?
Yellow. Preferred... 1 step green or 1 step Brown is also fine. Very Firm on no further, they either wait or get frozen at any other stage. I have used this version of ATK banana bread & it tastes great.
Love your videos!
Johnny Harris has a brilliant video on Bananas. I hope everyone watches it. (Dan mentions most of the key points)
Yellow with a touch of green is my favorite. It helps keep the glucose load down which I appreciate as a type 2 diabetic.
That is my go to banana bread recipe. It's my family's Sunday Funday treat to start the day. Puts everyone in a good mood.
Do you have the recipe from the video?
Speckled to highly speckled 8. We love your videos Dan, keep them coming.
7 freckled is perfect even when I make banana bread.
Great video as always!
No speckles, no green, so I have about 3 hours to eat the entire bunch of bananas. Worth it.
😁slightly speckled 6…thanks for all the banana scoop!
Dan holding two bananas....well, my day is complete.
Genuinely glad you did the banana cheese thing. My local delicatessen where I used to live, for a time, had a sandwich on the board which was: banana, peanut butter, cheddar cheese and cranberry sauce. I had it and it's absolutely amazing. Whenever I have cranberry sauce since then, I make this sandwich.
It's best on granary bread. The saltiness of the peanut butter and the savoury of the cheese, plus the sharpness of the cranberry sauce all go absolutely perfectly with banana. I urge you to try it.
Would eat!
Oh and I'm a lightly speckled 4.
I learned that banana/cheese snack from Mr. Rogers, too! Still eat it 30 years later. So good.
Hey Dan~ My fave bananas are yellow w/ green, preference 8: I like the texture with milk & cereal or to add to a bowl of sectioned oranges & grapefruit with their delish juices.
Yet, preference 10 for heavily speckled to be used in banana bread! :)
Love the video and your humor, as I have VERY RIPE black/brown bananas in the fridge & heavily speckled ones, waiting for me to make banana bread. Thank you for the recipe, as well. I love my King Arthur flour cookbook banana bread recipe, but this one looks amazing!
Awesome!
Yellow with a touch of green. Bananas for bread: as ripe as can be. I freeze three bananas, and purée after defrosting for two cups of fruit. Bread is so moist. I also love frying the bread in butter.
In 1986 a Jamaican Bartender on the North Shore taught me THE correct way to peel bananas. Pull one strip down from top to bottom, then peel the rest around sideways. He convinced me his way is faster and easier. I've been peeling them that way ever since. Thank you Lenox, could you make me a Dirty Banana?
I’m a 2. The only banana I won’t eat is a green one! I prefer slightly speckled yellow on the way to work, green with yellow or yellow with green on my long runs, dark speckled on my toast, black in oatmeal. They each serve a purpose. Great video, Dan! Can’t wait to hear the results of the poll!
I prefer greenish yellow....slightly firm and not too sweet. I loved this episode....you are the "Dan, the Banana man" 🙂 Keep the great shows coming
Yellow 5! Awesome video! They also often wrap the top conjoining section of the banana bunch with Parafilm to slow ripening as well and no one is exactly sure why this works (I used to work for the company that makes Parafilm). Also, this Ultimate Banana Bread recipe got me through many potlucks in college!
I'm a pure yellow 5! But it varies with banana type. Cavendish is yellow with a bit of green to yellow. Gros Michel is heavily speckled 😍
Yellow 8 here. Speckled bananas up to brown/black are happily put in smoothies and for baking.
If only the first memory of having a banana would come to mind. It's my mother who shared this amazing fruit called the banana with me. It's great to know Banana chips are a thing. I have not had A frozen banana dipped in chocolate since childhood! (fondue season). Banana bread is amazing! I gotta try the recipe you suggested. Thanks Dan for sharing the Mr. Rogers snack idea, not sure if I have the courage to try cheese & banana. I will eat a banana when it's gross looking inside and out anyway while turning squish inside. (Banana Level 6-8)
I a m a yellow greenie! Thanks Dan for the info!😊
Lightly speckled is my fave. I can go from a little green to heavily speckled. Greener than just a touch green and really mushy and dark, often with some fermentation going on, are no goes for me as out-of-hand fruit.
I enjoyed this video, and have enjoyed all of Dan's contributions to this channel.
One thing not addressed is the practicality of freezing bananas. Living on the equator in Southeast Asia, bananas ripen in what seems like minutes, so I sometimes trim the ends, wash them, and pop them into my freezer. These frozen bananas are fine in smoothies, and i usually leave the skin on.
Sadly, banana variety where I live is highly limited, and almost all are Cavendish. Had I access to hardier types, I'd try pan frying.
My ripeness preference is for firm bananas, so slightly green at the stem end is okay. Overripe bananas are just okay to me, but edible, and I don't waste.
Banana wrapped in a slice of pasteurized cheese sounds interesting enough that I'll have to try it.
Lightly speckled to highly speckled, great video as always Dan!
Lightly speckled 10 for fresh eating, brown/black 8 for blending into smoothies, which is my main way of eating them.
I remember seeing that on Mr. Rogers when I was young. I ate bananas like that all the time and was continually scoffed at. I was starting to think the Mr. Rogers episode wasn't real, and my mind made it up as a cope, but you have confirmed it!
Yellow with a hint of green 7. I peel and freeze them if they get speckled and use them in banana bread and smoothies.
The acrid flavor of the flower and foamy bits are my favorite.