Fresh cranberries are often packaged and sold in the produce section of local supermarkets seasonally in the fall. They can also be harvested in cranberry bogs or dry cranberry farms. But how do you determine if a cranberry is ripe? Picking the freshest cranberries means better recipes for the season, so look out for certain traits in cranberries: firmness, color, sound and bounce.
Firmness
A ripe cranberry is very firm, almost like an acorn or stone. Hold a cranberry between your fingers and you’ll feel it doesn’t have a lot of squeezability to it. Instead it is smooth but very firm. There is little softness to it, harder than a cherry.
Softness Is Overripe
An overripe cranberry is not firm at all. It may feel like a grape. If it is soft and spongy, the cranberry is overripe. It may appear wrinkled, or even puffed out. If you can squeeze a cranberry and manipulate its shape, the fruit has passed its peak and is rotting.
Color
Unripe cranberries are often a pale pink. Over-ripe cranberries are often coral and more transparent, even a golden color. Some overripe cranberries are a deep purple or maroon. However ripe cranberries are a bright, fire-engine red that is opaque. Look out for these colors as you select your fruit.
Sound Versus Unsound
Perfectly ripe cranberries often have a distinct “sound’ as they plunk down in a bowl or container. It’s a bouncy sound, almost like a rubber ball, or a hollow noise. The fruit sounds fresh and lively. However, over ripe cranberries make another sound as they fall. Instead it is a thud, there is no bounciness to it. When testing cranberries for freshness, try a little gravity to see what sound the fruit makes as you drop it into a container.
Bounce
Ripe cranberries will actually have a bounce to them. It can be a lot of fun to drop a cranberry onto a countertop or into a container and see them bounce. If the fruit does not bounce, the cranberry is past its prime. Bouncing cranberries is not only a way to test for freshness, but can also be an opportunity to get children involved in the cooking process.
Freshness tests
A ripe cranberry will have a distinct red color, be firm like an acorn and not soft like a grape. You can also “hear” its freshness in the melodic “plunk” the fruit makes as it falls into a bucket or container. Use this fruit in your cranberry recipes and forego the overly ripened soft yellowing cranberries.
Catherine Galioto - Catherine Galioto is a Jersey Shore native who enjoys writing on a variety of topics. She has been published in online and local print ...
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