There is no paragon of fruit salad. While some fruit fanatics approach fruit salad by throwing in their favorite in-season fruits in one bowl, others prefer a mixture of delectable fruits enmeshed in cream cheese and marshmallows. Regardless of the approach, fruit salad is a timeless dessert or snack dish that will brighten any summer day.
While there is no singular right way to create a fruity salad, there are a couple of wrong ways: the first of which being including bananas in the mix and the second being including apples. One of the things to look forward to when taking a bite of fruit salad is a pop of flavor delivered by whichever melon or berry your spoon has captured. These delightful pops of flavor can easily be diminished by the texture of a mushy banana.
Even before then, the enthusiasm for eating a refreshing fruit salad can quickly vanish at the sight of a browned apple chunk. For these reasons, bananas and apples are best left out of a fruit salad unless they are properly prepared with a coat of lemon or pineapple juice. Why bananas turn to mush The cause of bruising and mushy bananas is one in the same: ethylene.
This gaseous fruit hormone is a kick-starter to the ripening process, and bananas are known to contain more of this hormone than most fruits. Ethylene guides bananas through their life cycle, from ripe to rot. As ethylene works its magic, it causes a breakdown of acids that result in the texture changing from firm to mushy.
In addition to being a ripen.