My mom loves grapefruit. She eats it plain, in all of its zingy glory, for breakfast or an afternoon snack. I, by contrast, cannot stand it. All three times I've tried eating grapefruit, its sourness turned me off.
Given, however, that this winter citrus is bursting with vitamins A and C, both of which assist in strengthening the immune system, I've been trying to find a way to make it palatable. Eager to enjoy the health benefits of grapefruit without puckering up, I endeavored to learn how to improve its flavor. Here's what I came up with.
Embrace the Bitter
Grapefruit comes in several varieties, with some tasting sharper than others (and your palate determining your preference). The five most common are oro blanco, red, pink, pomelo, and white. “Supposedly, the redder the flesh, the sweeter the flavor, but we find red grapefruit to be the least complex tasting (and often plenty bitter),” says Bon Appétit food director Chris Morocco.
Despite the varying degrees of bitterness, all grapefruits contain a flavonoid called naringin that’s responsible for its sharp flavor. Previous research found that the juice vesicles and seeds in grapefruit contain the lowest concentrations of naringin. By contrast, grapefruit’s segment membranes, pith, and albedo (the white spongy portion of the peel) contain higher amounts of the flavonoid. Ultimately, the good outweighs the bad with naringin, as it’s associated with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. So, rather than shying away from its strong taste, try balancing grapefruit with a second food or ingredient.
How To Balance Grapefruit’s Bitter Flavor
If you're searching for ways to smooth out the taste of grapefruit, try these five suggestions:
Sprinkle the fruit with salt. Adding a light sprinkle of salt to grapefruit may sound odd, but it actually works. Paul Breslin, PhD, professor of Nutritional Sciences at Rutgers University, explains that sprinkling salt on the fruit reduces the tongue's ability to detect bitter compounds like naringin. "When I add salt to it, I then suppress some of the negative notes like the bitter taste," he tells The Guardian. As a result, Dr. Breslin says that suppressing the fruit’s tartness allows for its sweetness to shine through.
Drizzle honey over the fruit. According to MissInformationBlog.com, this natural sweetener is the liquid gold that bitter grapefruit craves. Start by drizzling the fruit with a teaspoon of honey, and add a little bit more if needed. The honey’s syrupy texture also mixes with the grapefruit’s juices to create a sweet dressing – yum.
Caramelize the fruit. A fan of crème brûlée? If so, you’ll love grapefruit brulée, which is made by dusting half a grapefruit with sugar and caramelizing it in the broiler. The end result is a crunchy, sugary top that balances the slightly warm and juicy fruit. Try this Grapefruit Brulée recipe from the Fresh Tastes food blog, which cooks in less than 10 minutes.
Mix the fruit into a salad. Fruit salad isn’t just a summer BBQ staple. This Winter Fruit Salad recipe from MyRecipes.com combines in-season grapefruit with other fruits like kiwi and pineapple. Doing this tames the sourness of the grapefruit and amplifies your salad with a broader range of nutrients.
Add a dollop of dairy to the fruit. This tip from UptownGirl.com calls for combining grapefruit slices with a little bit of yogurt or cottage cheese. Why? The creaminess from the dairy helps mellow out the acidity of the grapefruit. Bonus: Add a spoonful of granola for a more complete fruit and yogurt bowl.
First It’s Sour, Then It’s Sweet
These tips are sure to change the hearts and taste buds of any grapefruit hater — they certainly changed mine. Just keep in mind that consuming grapefruit while taking certain medications may cause that medication to linger in your body longer, as opposed to breaking down in a timely manner; this leads to a greater amount of medication present in your blood and the potential for increased side effects. So be safe while you savor this fruit at its peak!
This article originally appeared on our sister site, Woman's World.
Some vegetables and fruit have bitter tastes, which can be aversive to consumers, particularly children. The present study tested the hypothesis that acceptance of grapefruit juice is influenced, in part, by sensitivity to the bitter taste of 6-n-propylthiouracil (Prop), a heritable trait.
Some vegetables and fruit have bitter tastes, which can be aversive to consumers, particularly children. The present study tested the hypothesis that acceptance of grapefruit juice is influenced, in part, by sensitivity to the bitter taste of 6-n-propylthiouracil (Prop), a heritable trait.
It makes sense that sugar can help to mask bitter flavors — consider coffee, tea, chocolate, alcohol, cranberry sauce, or candied citrus peels, for example. Grapefruit too can benefit from a sprinkle of sugar, a spoonful of honey, or a drizzle of maple syrup.
Some of the ingredients in your pantry like honey, yogurt and even salt help turn this citrus from sour to sweet. This way, you can bask in its bright flavor without the tartness being overwhelming.
It may seem counter-intuitive, but a pinch of salt may be your ticket to grapefruit enjoyment. Sweetening your grapefruit with salt is a trick that people have been using for over a hundred years. In 1946, Morton Salt even featured the unlikely pairing in advertisem*nts.
A number of psychotropic drugs, including those used to treat anxiety, depression, and psychosis, are among the agents grapefruit juice may interact with. 3 This is because grapefruit contains furanocoumarins, an organic compound that blocks an enzyme that normally breaks down these medications (the CYP3A4 enzyme).
The growth of competition from various other fruits has stymied the popularity of processed grapefruit, which is normally used in drinks. And that's compounded by the fact that people are drinking less juice overall. Juice sales have fallen in five consecutive years, according to market research firm Euromonitor.
While it may seem counterintuitive, salt — not sugar — can make grapefruit taste less bitter and more sweet. Sure, sugar can drown out the bitterness and sour flavor if you sprinkle it on thick enough, but salt actually balances these tastes rather than covering them up.
Once they are ripe, refrigerate. Apples, cherries, grapefruit, grapes, oranges, pineapples, strawberries, tangerines and watermelon are received ripe and should be refrigerated.
Sugar can overpower the natural sweetness. It may seem counterintuitive, but a pinch of salt may be all you need! The science behind the suggestion is simple. The ions in the salt block the bitter sensors on your tongue allowing the sweet flavor of the grapefruit to come through.
The problem is that chemicals in the fruit can get in the way of the medicine breaking down, called metabolizing, in the digestive system. As a result, the medicine can stay in the body for too long or too short a time. More often, the problem is medicine staying in the body too long.
One of the medications that interact with grapefruit is Zoloft (sertraline). The medication is used to treat anxiety, and according to older research, it is known to interact with grapefruit juice.This leads to blocking the enzyme metabolizing the sertraline, increasing the levels in the blood.
Many drugs are broken down (metabolized) with the help of a vital enzyme called CYP3A4 in the small intestine. Grapefruit juice can block the action of intestinal CYP3A4, so instead of being metabolized, more of the drug enters the blood and stays in the body longer. The result: too much drug in your body.
For grapefruit, it's slightly different. The taste of grapefruit is very bitter, and so those who are more inclined to taste bitterness might be more sensitive, but there is a “point mutation” for some people of European ancestry, which makes grapefruit taste even more bitter.
Although a grapefruit is similar in anatomy to an orange, it's not quite as straightforward to eat. This is because a grapefruit's flesh is surrounded by bitter pith and tough membrane—both of which are edible but not enjoyable to eat.
Well, the grapefruit was originally called the “forbidden fruit” because in 1750, Reverend Griffith Hughes came upon the grapefruit and called it that while he was looking for the origin of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden.
Introduction: My name is Nathanael Baumbach, I am a fantastic, nice, victorious, brave, healthy, cute, glorious person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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