Preserving your bananas for longer is a real challenge… except with this tip.
At a few cents each, the banana is a fruit that is both economical and nutritious. It would be a shame to do without it! Only problem: they tend to blacken and soften in no time, condemning them to end up either in the trash or transformed into delicious banana bread, the ultimate but very caloric tip to give them a second life.
But why do bananas turn black so quickly? Like apples and kiwis, bananas are so-called “climacteric” fruits. This means that they continue to ripen after harvest thanks to the ethylene they release once picked. To prevent your bananas from ending up in a sad state prematurely, you must try to slow down the production of this gas. Classic tips, such as choosing bananas that are not too ripe or still green, and storing them at room temperature rather than putting them in the refrigerator, are well known to everyone.
There’s also a surprisingly simple and inexpensive way to extend the life of your bananas, allowing you to keep them for 10 to 15 days. When you get home from shopping, take a glass of water and immerse the stems of the bananas in it, making sure to keep them upside down, head down. And that’s all ! The result is astonishing: ten days later, the bananas will have ripened and will of course have some brown spots, but they will not be soft or completely black.
As this TikTok video shows, by inserting the stems into water, you manage to slow down the ripening process of the fruits by reducing the amount of ethylene emitted by them. Users also share another method which is based on the same principle: slowing down the ethylene production of bananas, and thus preventing their premature blackening. Simply wrap the banana stems in aluminum foil or cling film.
