My Dad’s Smart Method Guarantees a Perfectly Ripe Banana Every Day

My dad takes breakfast seriously. Every morning, he eats the same plate: jam-covered toast, a slice of melon, and, most importantly, a bowl of hot oatmeal topped with blueberries and sliced banana. Over time, he has taught me a thing or two about picking bananas. He never simply tosses a bunch into the cart, because that would leave him with a banana that is too firm and bland one day and another that is overripe a few days later. I have to admit he’s right.

For his weekly banana supply, Dad buys individual bananas at different stages of ripeness. That way, each one hits its best flavor on a different day, giving him a perfectly sweet banana every morning.

Why Bananas Seem to Ripen All at Once

I’ve tried plenty of ways to speed up banana ripening, such as placing them in a bag, and just as many ways to slow it down, like hanging them on a hook. But every method overlooks a basic fact: bananas sold in stores, including organic ones, are picked and shipped while still green and firm to reduce bruising, then exposed to ethylene gas so they ripen on schedule.

Bananas, along with apples, pears, and some vegetables, naturally produce ethylene and respond to it. When an unripe banana is exposed to the gas, it ripens evenly from top to bottom. The downside is that the bananas around it in the bunch tend to ripen at the same pace too.

In other words, store-bought banana bunches are designed to ripen together. That works well for banana bread or banana cream pie, but if you want one ideal banana a day, Dad’s approach is better: buy individual bananas instead of a whole bunch.

The Simple Way to Pick the Best Bananas

Store employees often refill the banana display from the same shipment or even the same box, so my dad builds what he calls his “variety pack” by sorting through the single bananas other shoppers leave behind when they break up a bunch. He chooses by color: yellow for the first one he’ll eat, greenish yellow for a few days later, and fully green for the end of the week. According to him, the only real problem is when “your mom eats my banana and gets me out of sync.” So if you want a steady run of perfectly ripe bananas, it helps when the whole family is on the same page.