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Love this. Can you figure out a similar test to avoid mealy peaches? Thinking you're biting into a juicy, sweet peach but getting a mealy mouthful is the only thing worse than mealy apples!

Oh that's the worst! The anticipation of a super juicy peach and then...blech!!!!

Yes -- mealy peaches are horrid! (had some last week)

I think another trick is to buy fruit that is relatively heavy for its size -- if it is light, I always think chances are the fruit is mealy.

funny that y'all should mention peaches--- I was wondering if storing peaches and apples together in the same bowl could make them mealy? I just had a whole batch of apples and peaches go yuck on me, even though I only brought them home a couple days ago.

Personally, I won't buy peaches (or berries!) from the supermarket anymore. I grew up in Hawaii and for nearly three decades, *never* had a good peach. I didn't understand why people liked them: they were always either mealy or hard and unripe. Then one summer, I got one from the farmer's market because the scent from the stand was so completely overwhelming. Turned out I'd bought the "World's Best Peach, Ever." :) Who would have guessed?! Anyway, long & snarky story short, if at all possible, skip supermarket fruit and go to your local farmer's market.

As a little girl my father taught me a trick for picking crispy apples. I've never met anyone else who does this, but it's always seemed to work for me! You knock on or flick the apple with the back of your finger or knuckle. I use a 'flicking' motion (as if I were trying to annoy an older sibling by flicking them on the forehead). The higher pitched the sound, the crispier the apple will be. Lower pitched apples are softer and mealier inside.

@cranberrybobbie

AMAZING! I actually figured that(flicking the apples) out on my own, I can't remember how exactly, but when friends see me flicking my apples they always laugh at first, until I explain it! It works pretty much every time, I occasionally get a SLIGHTLY mealy apple, but rarely! :) Just takes a little practice to tell the difference between high and low pitched apples, since at first they sound pretty similar.

I am fed up with the apples in California. Last fall I had the best apples at the farmers market at Washington Sq. in Manhattan and still dream of them.

Apples get mealy when they are refrigerated, then brought to room temperature. I HATE it that almost all supermarkets now refrigerate their apples. It completely ruins them and turns all that sugar into starch. Yuck.

Ah, Matchbookhymnal, but if you keep them refrigerated, they're just fine. In fact, they'll keep nearly indefinitely like that.

Unless, of course, you've got a bad one in with them. And then, you know, fill in the rest of the proverb.

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