I let my bananas get very ripe prior to making banana bread with them. This time one of the bananas had become translucent at the top towards the stem. See attached photo. Is this banana still safe to cook with? I would chop off the translucent part and bit use the remaining non-translucent banana for cooking.
Best Answer
The whole thing, including the translucent part is fine to cook with.
As they ripen, fruits convert their starches to sugar. Starch isn’t water soluble, but sugar is. So as ripening happens, the sugar dissolves into the moisture of the ripe banana, giving it that translucent appearance. Additionally, as bananas ripen they deploy enzymes to weaken their usually firm cell walls, so that is why bananas soften over time.
That’s also why super ripe bananas are actually much sweeter and great for cooking/baking. This banana looks great for banana bread to me!