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buying an orange but getting a lemon

post #1 of 16
11/5/07 at 12:15am
Thread Starter 
With most fruits you can tell if they are good or not by looking at them. But I've never been able to figure it out for oranges. How can you tell if an orange will be any good w/o peeling it? Anyone know?
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post #2 of 16
11/5/07 at 4:36pm
it should be somewhat soft I think, it is very difficult with oranges simply because they paint the damn things to look much more ripe/orange than they are.
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post #3 of 16
11/5/07 at 5:01pm
paint them, what
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post #4 of 16
11/5/07 at 5:29pm
A good orange should feel slightly heavy for its size (that's the juice) and smell good.

There are other tricks for selecting fruit, e.g., tapping a watermelon, never buying peaches when the stem area is green, not buying anything that's too hard, etc. I am sure others here will have suggestions.
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post #5 of 16
11/5/07 at 5:32pm
It's an orange, for crying out loud. Just buy what looks the best to you. You win some, you lose some, but oranges overall don't cost too much so you don't lose much.
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post #6 of 16
11/5/07 at 6:39pm
Oranges can be tricky, I never had a rotten orange but some would have hard-to-detect insect damage. I had a couple of navel orange trees in my backyard as a kid (as did every other Floridiot). Obviously, avoid brown spots, try to get the firmest fruit possible that is still orange.
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post #7 of 16
11/6/07 at 1:17am
Quote:
Originally Posted by FLMountainMan View Post
Oranges can be tricky, I never had a rotten orange but some would have hard-to-detect insect damage. I had a couple of navel orange trees in my backyard as a kid (as did every other Floridiot). Obviously, avoid brown spots, try to get the firmest fruit possible that is still orange.
Floridiot I'll have to remember that one. Oranges are a lot like apples. You shouldn't be able to break the skin with pressure, should have good heft, and should see no visible dents or pockmarks.
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post #8 of 16
11/6/07 at 3:21am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Souper View Post
paint them, what

Paint them orange, its somewhat common for fruits to recieve a spray of paint/wax or other color enhancing additives to help make product more appealing. Its frequently done with under ripened fruit.
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post #9 of 16
11/6/07 at 3:55am
I usually go by smell, sight, and touch. Can't really explain what seems right, besides the item should smell like the fruit, and not "green" or rancid. Other than that I just smell, look, and touch and say "yup, that feels about right", so into the basket it goes.
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post #10 of 16
11/6/07 at 7:44pm
Thread Starter 
Asked an old lady today who was picking oranges and she said to look for soft, thin and shiny skin. She said the orange should be "fleshy". Also admitted she'd been a vegetarian for years. Guess that's pretty good qualifications(?).

I tried it out and can attest that it seems to work.
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post #11 of 16
11/6/07 at 8:02pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by hamlet View Post
Asked an old lady today who was picking oranges and she said to look for soft, thin and shiny skin. She said the orange should be "fleshy". Also admitted she'd been a vegetarian for years. Guess that's pretty good qualifications(?).

I tried it out and can attest that it seems to work.

That works with juice oranges, but not really the eating kind like navels.
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post #12 of 16
11/6/07 at 11:28pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by FLMountainMan View Post
That works with juice oranges, but not really the eating kind like navels.

I tried it out on a navel orange and it worked. What kind of orange is used for juice? And how do you tell the difference? If it's juicy why wouldn't we also want to eat it?
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post #13 of 16
11/7/07 at 3:10am
Quote:
Originally Posted by hamlet View Post
I tried it out on a navel orange and it worked. What kind of orange is used for juice? And how do you tell the difference? If it's juicy why wouldn't we also want to eat it?
You would juice an orange that would be too soft to eat. The same way you'd throw an overripe banana into a smoothie because it was too mushy to eat. People generally like a firmer flesh for eating.
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post #14 of 16
11/7/07 at 6:15pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by rambo View Post
You would juice an orange that would be too soft to eat. The same way you'd throw an overripe banana into a smoothie because it was too mushy to eat. People generally like a firmer flesh for eating.

So these are the same eating oranges that have gone soft? I always thought that going soft was the step before going sour. Does this mean orange juice is made from almost rotten oranges?
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post #15 of 16
11/9/07 at 8:12pm
Thin skin, fragrant, and heavy, always buy the heavy citrus. Also keep in mind that with oranges they don't actually have to be orange to be delicious, if the skin is thin and they are heavy oranges with a big green spot towards the top are just as good as oranges that are all orange.
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