How to Cut Open Ripe Jackfruit to Extract the Yellow Bulbs

Last Updated on June 1, 2018 by Babita

How to cut open ripe jackfruit? I don’t think most people in the US ever had to ask this question. However, those who are looking for the answer, you have come to the right place.

 

 

This is what a whole Jackfruit looks like. As you can see below the skin of the Jackfruit is thick, green with very visible bumps on them. These bumps don’t hurt, but you can definitely feel their texture when you touch it. My husband bought this jackfruit from our local Asian store and it was around 22lbs in weight. However, I have also seen cut up jackfruits in Whole Foods and Indian stores in NJ.

 

 

Jackfruit is a tropical fruit that is native to India and widely found all over Southeast Asia. It is mostly available in the coastal or southern states of India. It is available during the summer, which is early March to early June.

As soon as my girls saw this Jackfruit on our kitchen counter they were doing the happy dance. We all love jackfruit in our family and crave for it. This is the first time, we were able to find a whole Jackfruit. In the past we have been satisfying our love/craving for Jackfruit with it lowly preserved in sugar syrup canned version (which I have to mention is nasty in taste) or a small piece of cut up fresh jackfruit which used to be very expensive.

Since not a lot of people here in the US are aware of how to extract the yellow bulbs (fruit), I made this video. I have spent years watching my mom cut up jackfruit, so I decided to follow the same methods. Check it out below:

How to Cut Open Ripe Jackfruit to Extract the Yellow Bulbs

 

 

The yellow jackfruit bulb is the fruit. It is sweet, aromatic and the flavor I can best describe is, a combination of pineapple, apple, banana, and mango. The texture is firm and sometimes fibrous. The aroma is a bit overpowering and may need some getting used to. As you can see towards the end of the video, you have to separate the seeds from the bulbs. These seeds are also edible and nutritious. They can be boiled or grilled and eaten as snacks ( will post soon).

 

 

One more thing that you can do with the jackfruit is preserved its rind. In Mangalore, these preserved rinds are used to make chutney and other recipes during the Monsoon season.

 

 

Check out my post on how to preserve jackfruit rind by clicking the picture below:

 

 

This one jackfruit yielded more than 100 hundred bulbs and seeds. I froze some of the bulbs for future use and gave some to my friends as well. I have to say this particular jackfruit was every bit worth the money. The fruit was exceptionally sweet and firm.