What makes carrot bits turn green in carrot pineapple bread? (And are they safe?)

Question

Sometimes, a couple of days after its cooked, the carrot bits inside a carrot pineapple bread turn green.

Normally, I'd assume that a food that doesn't start green and winds up that way is moldy, but, A) it's only happening to the carrots, and B) it's happening inside the loaf, not on the outside, and it doesn't look like mold- more like the carrots themselves are changing color.

What's causing this, and is it still ok to eat?

In case it matters, the other ingredients are vegetable oil, cinnamon, salt, eggs, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, flour, and vanilla.

Answer

Here is a super in-depth analysis of what may cause the carrot to turn green:

http://www.carrotmuseum.co.uk/turngreen.html

Unfortunately, it doesn't come to any hard conclusions. It does make it clear that it's not simply pH though, as a carrot will remain green even in a 0.1 M solution of sodium hydroxide.

It does provide an anecdote about a baker that had a similar issue, and how they solved it:

[they overcame] it with a change in formula of baking powder and a good clean out of equipment.

Perhaps this could apply in your case? It might be a reaction from your cookware in combination with other factors? What if you remove the pineapple? Does it still happen? Perhaps trying a different brand of baking powder may work.

One thing is for sure, it's definitely not mold, and I'm very confident that it's harmless.

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How can i tell if a pineapple will be sweet?

Question

A lot of the times when i bring a pineapple home and eat it, i get a semi-sweet and sour taste. How can you tell when is the right time to eat your pineapple to get very sweet pineapple meat?

Answer

Usually you can tell when Pineapples are ripen, which will be sweet, when

1. Leaves are loose and can easily be picked from the top
2. The shell has golden colour (but not dark brown, these are getting rotten)
3. The aroma even from out of the shell is strong

A typical pineapple that is bought green and unripen, takes one to two days to ripe well. Don't put them in the fridge if you want to ripe them. Keep them out on the counter. As a street food vendor, we always keep them in the truck for one night prior to selling, that ensure the pineapples ripe enough and the juice comes out of it.

Hope it helps.

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What should I check when buying a pineapple?

Question

I live in middle Europe so pineapple (so called "ananas") is an exotic fruit for me.

What should I check when buying a pineapple to make sure it would taste well? Should it smell specific? Should it be soft or hard? Should it be big or small?

I believe this questions is valid for other regions as well. Is it?

Answer

It should be firm, not mushy, but not rock hard either.

The most important thing, however, is smell. An unripe pineapple won't smell like anything. An overripe pineapple will smell vinegary. A ripe pineapple will smell sweet.

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