Jackfruit Hints
Scientific name: Artocarpus heterophyllus
Family: Moraceae
Some people dislike the strong smell of jakfruits. Jaks are related
to durians which have a smell that revolts some people. Dismember the
Jak in the open air or better, get family members to do it for you.
Jakfruit
vary a lot in flavour and crispness. All semi-mature jakfruit are
excellent in curries and stir-fries. All ripe jakfruit taste better
when chilled - try sprinkling with lemon juice before eating. Some
people like them semi-frozen and eat the fruit with a knife and fork.
Jakfruit are a good addition to a fruit salad.
The ripe segments
can be curried or made into delicious jam with the addition of other
flavours e.g. ginger, lemon, pineapple. Jaks are high in pectin. If you
have a drier, Jakfruit is easy to dry and tastes a bit like dates when
dried. You can sprinkle with lemon juice when drying and also make
super fruit leathers.
When using Jaks as above, beware of over-ripe fruit. The aroma increases.
The pulp is very high in protein and fibre.
When
storing jakfruit in fridge, remove skin and rags and seeds. The rags
are very high in pectin - they can be simmered and the juice used in
marmalade-making.
Jakfruit seeds are nutritious, but must be
cooked and skin discarded. The seeds can be boiled (in plenty of
water), and tossed into cold water so the skins come off easily. The
nutritious seeds can be eaten cold or warmed, or tastier if roasted or
barbecued after the skins are removed. Using a microwave, the seeds can
be put in a plastic bag and cooked slowly. When cooked, seeds can be
eaten whole, chopped like nuts, or ground up.
The unripe fruit
can be cooked as a vegetable and has no smell. The Asian people use
Jaks (in Australia) mostly unripe. For cooking as a vegetable, cut a
well-formed hard fruit. For eating as a fruit, the fruit should have a
dull sound when knocked. The fruit sounds metallic when not ready to
pick. You can wait to pick till the fruit is soft to touch, but the
birds etc. may attack the fruit before you.
Jakfruit stems exude
a sticky latex sap. You can stop the oozing by rubbing the cut end in
soil or wrapping quickly in newspaper.
Jakfruit are easy to grow
in the tropics; having a deep tap root, they thrive on clay soil. The
small, immature fruit falling are the males that have done their job.
Never
leave a decomposing jakfruit under the tree - nearly every seed will
germinate, and having a tap root, are hard to pull up. So compost the
fruit and seeds. There are other fruits that germinate under the tree
if not picked up - yellow mangosteen and white sapote (Casimiroa
edulis) are difficult to pull up when only a few inches tall. For
hygiene, fallen fruit should always be gathered daily - eaten if O.K.
and composted if not.
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