How do you keep Bananas ripe?

binnie

Hello Everybody
Hope you are having some nice sunshine for a change :j
I have bought some bananas for a good price and have about 8 of them.
I don't like them when they go brown and end up throwing them away.
What I want to know is, can you keep them in the fridge to keep them fresh?
I thought I heard not to.
xxx

I_luv_cats

I hang my on a banana tree I got from 99p stores.

I think once they are unpacked in the stores or @ home they soon over ripen. (in transit they are in a suspended ripen-something to do with gas?)

alared

You can tell a banana is ripe when it is no longer a dark green, but a nice shade of yellow with some brown spots. When they get to this stage, you can put them in the fridge where they will store well for about a fortnight. The fridge will probably make them turn black quickly but you can still eat them when they are like that.

http://www.tellmehowto.net/howto/store_bananas_395

stumpycat

Keep them away from each other? They produce ethene gas which will ripen them (and other fruit beside them)
I think if you put them in a fridge they will discolour even more.

Pretani

I would put them in the fridge, seperately as stumpycat suggests. If there's any bread in the bread bin which is near its sell-by-date, I'll stick it in the fridge to keep it fresh for longer.

y5d

If you keep the bananas in the fridge they will not over-ripen as quickly as at room temperature. It does, however, cause the skins to go brown. If you can ignore the skin colour you should find that the flesh is still ok.

silverchair

I bought a banana bag for about 5 pounds from lakeland which seems to work.
You can always make some kind of banana cake/ banana bread with the over ripened bananas so dont throw them away.

Teahfc

Putting Bananas in a Fridge is not the answer, Once the fruit has been (degreened) exposed to ethelene it will ripen naturally, to expose it to a temprature of less than 8 degrees will destroy the cells inside the fruit and turn black.

nic_nac_

Don't keep your bananas next to other fruit in the fruit bowl as it will make them and the other fruit ripen quicker. I have a fruit bowl with a seperate hanging tree at the top for bananas where I keep mine and they stay fresher for much longer.

chuckley

i always find 'out of sunlight' works... ie a cupboard or brown paper bag/desk drawer...

ems2

you can always freeze them for making banana cake at a later date