Tropical Fruits

The tropical fruits are the most biochemically extreme in the kitchen — featuring the most dramatic starch-to-sugar conversions, the most powerful protein-digesting enzymes, and in durian, the most polarizing aroma chemistry in the plant kingdom. All are native to warm climates and most suffer chilling injury at refrigerator temperatures (see produce-handling). The group splits evenly between climacteric species (banana, mango, papaya, cherimoya) that can ripen after harvest and non-climacteric species (pineapple, lychee) that cannot.