How do you store bananas?

[NCTDN]

Possibly the most boring question ever I know, but I’m sick of bananas going overripe before they’re eaten.
what’s the secret to storing bananas?

Fruit bowl. My kids will eat them green so they never get overly ripe but if they got a chance to there’s plenty I’d do with them.

Ah, one of my specialist subjects! Every week Ocado delivers us a bunch of bananas that are supposed to be ripe and ready to eat and another one which arrives very green but ripens over the week. I keep the ones that are still ripening and some of the ones that are supposedly already ripe (they often aren't, sometimes the two bunches look identical) on a cool windowledge in the kitchen. I put two or three of the ripe ones in the fruit bowl. As they go down I replace them from the windowledge. As and when I have to, I put some ripe ones in the fridge. The skins discolour or get mottled but the insides are still fine. I have also occasionally ended up freezing some. You can either freeze them in their skins or peel them and put the chunks in a tub. I use these to make banana loaf when I get round to it.

It works reasonably well. As temperatures go up in the summer, it's more of a challenge. It helps that we do love banana loaf here, so over-ripe ones do get used up. I love bananas but not too ripe. My son, the other main banana eater here, and my husband, a very occasional banana eater, are the same.

Your children eat them green! Goodness me. I can't do that. It makes the inside of my mouth feel very odd.

Putting them in fridge works for me too. Skins go black but they're fine inside.

I have a banana hook because they can ripen other fruits in the fruit bowl. It apparently lessens the chances of them bruising and is meant to stop the bananas ripening too fast as well. They rarely get to that stage in our house though as we like eating them when they’re still slightly green.

It’s absolutely rank but they go their own way and that’s by no means the weirdest thing they enjoy.

I’m on the green scale. I don’t like them when they get black on them - too mushy for me! I make banana loaf but I’m the only one that likes it so end of using a healthy small to make cake

Useful!

Fruit bowl with a hook to hang them on so they dangle above the rest of the fruit. Helps prevent bruising which apparently speeds up ripening. Also they give off ethylene which makes your apples ripen faster, so best to keep them out of the main fruit owl.
I still end up with over-ripe ones sometimes, but then I just make a smoothie with them.

I have a bowl with a banana hook but we store nearly all fruit in the fridge these days. I wasn’t sure about storing bananas in there.

The other thing is that bananas have definitely changed. Back in the day they were ripe when lightly speckled brown but now they’re ripe on the inside long before they look it.

I put them in breakfast smoothies when I can wrench them from being eaten whole in a feeding frenzy. Whizz with oats, peanut butter, greek yogurt, vanilla extract, cocoa and milk.

The skins will go black but the inside will be fine to eat.

I eat one every day. I just keep them in a fruit bowl of their own. I eat an apple every day too, they have their own fruit bowl.

I read about covering the top of the bunch with some tinfoil to stop ripening.

Prefer my bananas on the greener side. Healthier.

Wrap them individually in foil/film to keep them longer.

Just hang around really. There’s nowhere they go easily. Had a banana hook years ago. Can't remember why it stopped being used. They fuck up other fruit in the bowl and take up room in fridge apart from turning black skinned.

Family go from eating 58 bananas each one week to not touching them for a month which doesn't help. Erratic bunch.

Ooh maybe I’ll try foil.

I put them in the fridge they seem to last longer at my house

That’s us too!

I store mine in a fruit bowl. I don’t know anyone who stores their bananas in a fridge!

You need one of these!
www.lakeland.co.uk/26967/lakeland-yellow-banana-bag?_gl=1164nyl3_upMQ.._gs*MQ..&gclid=Cj0KCQjw782_BhDjARIsABTv_JDtacOV7VKxUZuRVeYCj6L4Fh_MbK7WFpNQgccJiJRfaK075O4Ly68aAh4QEALw_wcB&gbraid=0AAAAADtoD6NYFx0fSAYb4CF_HPnUSfYNT

We just keep them in the fruitbowl, if they are hidden in the fridge they'd get forgotten about. I know they are supposed to over-ripen other fruits but we don't find it a problem. We are all fairly relaxed and will eat them at any stage from slightly green to mostly brown. Any that are going too far I cut up and open freeze, then either use in smoothies or DS will eat them straight from the freezer (he eats all sorts of frozen fruit).

Do you have one ? Does it work ?

In the fridge - they last so much longer

Yes and yes! I’m another one who likes her bananas towards the greener end of the spectrum and it definitely keeps them fresh. The skin does start to go brown but the insides are fine.