They are members of the same family along with potatoes, tomatoes, and peppers, but they go through a different process than these vegetables when they are being harvested.
Picking the eggplants at the right time is key for taste and texture.
Unlike other members of its family, eggplants are eaten before they are ripe. When eggplants are ripe, the texture becomes tough and the color fades. Therefore, it is important to know when eggplants are ripe to avoid eating them!
This article will tell you about when eggplants are ripe and how you can tell when they are ready to eat. This is important for making sure that you get all of the great tastes and benefits of eggplants, so knowing when to eat them is key!
What Do Ripe Eggplants Look Like?
When eggplants are ripe, their skin turns dark brown or yellow, which makes them look unappetizing, so it is easy to spot when they are ripe. When you squeeze a ripe eggplant, it will not return to its normal shape.
The taste is bitter with hints of woodiness, so you want to avoid eating ripe eggplant as it isn’t very pleasant at all.
Therefore, if you want your eggplant to taste fresh and have a great texture, you need to avoid your eggplant when it looks ripe.
It may sound odd that eating a ripe eggplant is unpleasant, but the best time to eat it is when it is beginning to ripe.
What Should Edible Eggplants Look Like?
Eggplants are most popular and delicious at the stage when they are just beginning to ripen. They will have shiny purple skin and feel spongy when you squeeze them gently.
You can tell when eggplants are not ready to be eaten as they will be firm and will not feel spongy at all. This will mean that they are not mature enough to eat.
Eggplants get to this stage when they are beginning to ripen, so you can start to squeeze them to feel their texture from when they begin turning purple.
It can range between 65-90 days for your eggplants to be edible, you just need to keep testing them and keeping an eye on the texture as this is what is most important.
If your eggplant has started to ripen, you should pick them straight away as this avoids them becoming too bitter to eat. Even if you do not use the eggplant straight away, this stops it from becoming too bitter and ripe.
The beginning stages are when your eggplant is most edible, especially when it has a spongy texture.
Harvesting Eggplants
When you go to harvest eggplants, make sure that you use a pair of cutters to avoid damaging the plant as picking can sometimes result in broken branches.
The stems can be spiky, so make sure that you wear gloves and are careful when you are removing the eggplant from the branch.
You should aim to use your eggplants quite soon after you harvest them as you do not want them to become ripe as this will make them inedible.
They do not keep for very long, so use them as soon as you can to make sure that they are edible and taste just right.
If you keep unripe eggplants in the fridge, they begin to feel spongy after a week. Keep an eye on your eggplant and keep testing when you should eat it as they become ripe very quickly, which will make you not want to eat them.
Unless you are freezing eggplants, use them within the short space for optimum flavor and texture!
When your eggplant has gone off, you should not eat it. You will be able to tell when your eggplant is rotten as it will have a bad smell and mushy texture, so simply throw it away and do not eat it!
Monitoring Your Eggplants
To make sure that you consume your eggplant at the right time, you need to keep gently squeezing the eggplant. If you squeeze it too harshly, you will damage the skin and the eggplant will become rotten if it is left.
Gently squeeze the eggplant to feel the texture inside so you can see if it is good to eat.
You should monitor the color of the eggplant as the best time to eat it is when the skin is dark purple, so monitor the color. When the skin begins to turn brown or yellow, this will indicate that the eggplant is ripening.
The texture and taste will become more bitter and it will not taste as nice as an eggplant that is spongy and purple.
Final Thoughts
To conclude, eggplants are ripe when the skin becomes brown and yellow and the texture becomes tough. The eggplant will not taste as nice, so it is important to monitor the color and texture of the eggplant to see when you should eat it.
The skin should be dark purple and shiny, and the texture should be spongy. Gently squeezing the eggplant will show you what the texture is like and indicate whether or not the eggplant is edible.
You should pick the eggplant as soon as it begins to ripen and keep monitoring the color and texture for great taste!
