When You Open a Papaya for Baby Food, Does the Smell Make You Want to Feed it to the Dog?
A while back, Alicia wrote to ask us if we thought the papaya she bought was rotten.She said it had a foul smell and seemed to be rotten.Well we wrote back to hopefully set Alicia’s mind at ease.While the smell may be bad, if the papaya is not overly soft and squishy, has no dark spots and obvious bruising on the flesh, then the odds are the papaya is/was just fine.
Many people find the smell of a ripe papaya very foul.I personally find it smells a bit like a pine-vomit kind of smell (sorry for that!).This has always thrown me off because the fruit itself does not taste like that.How can something that smells so bad taste so yummy?We simply cannot explain it.I can say that I find the scent of mango to be a bit “foul” as well.
Please tell us what you think the papaya smells like.Were you surprised by the smell and happily relieved that the taste was far better than the smell?Ok, if you think we’re smell-wackos and the papaya smells delightful, let us know that too!
Be sure to visit our page devoted to Papaya.This page contains recipes, hints and instructions for cutting a papaya and even nutritional values!
Category: Finger Foods, Fruits and Veggies
Ugh. I hate the sell and the taste! But, when I lived in Mexico I ate papaya a lot, it is very good for digestion.
Comment by Elisabeth A Saliani — July 7, 2008 @ 9:53 am
I can not stand the smell of papaya! It smells like very old garbage. I feel this way about very ripe bananas too!
Comment by Janeen Jackson — July 10, 2008 @ 12:22 pm
Yep, it stinks to high heaven. I wondered the same thing: ‘how can something smell so bad but taste so good?’ To me, it tastes in between a mango and a cantelope. It should be very sweet and juicy too. The black seeds are a little scary because they look like shiny black bugs, but I’ve heard that you can dry them and grind them in a pepper mill and use it just like black pepper on your food. I’ve also heard papaya has some kinda cancer fighting properties. I eat them because I don’t health insurance–preventative medicine ya know. lol
My mother grows it her yard here in FL. I’ve never bought one in the store, but I bet my mom’s taste better just because all her garden veggies taste better.
Comment by Holly — September 25, 2008 @ 11:18 am
Opened my first papaya today and thought the thing was rotten. Glad to find this site and learn differently. I must also say that I was a bit turned off by the tick looking things inside that I presume are seeds.
Comment by Jenifer — September 28, 2008 @ 9:09 pm