Paw paw

[torakris]

what is this?

[guajolote]

It's a relative of the cherimoya, and also called a custard apple. Attempts to cultivate them haven't benn too successful. I'm dying to try one. I think they grow in Ohio, too . There's a town in Michigan named Paw Paw.

More about Paw Paws

Edited May 1, 2003 by guajolote (log)

[torakris]

It's a relative of the cherimoya, and also called a custard apple. Attempts to cultivate them haven't benn too successful. I'm dying to try one. I think they grow in Ohio, too . There's a town in Michigan named Paw Paw.

More about Paw Paws

Ohio, really?

Donna Hay (Australian) calls for tthem a couple times in her books, and in the pictures they are usually julienned so I have no idea of what they look like, and of course I had never heard of it before.

[davidscooking]

Depends on the context, I'd say. "Paw paw" is the name for papaya in Jamaica, so if you encountered the term in a Caribbean context...

[guajolote]

picture of paw paw

[torakris]

THANK YOU!!

[dave88]

It's a relative of the cherimoya, and also called a custard apple. Attempts to cultivate them haven't benn too successful. I'm dying to try one. I think they grow in Ohio, too . There's a town in Michigan named Paw Paw.

More about Paw Paws

Ohio, really?

Donna Hay (Australian) calls for tthem a couple times in her books, and in the pictures they are usually julienned so I have no idea of what they look like, and of course I had never heard of it before.

There is also a town in WV called Paw-Paw. They are a semi-tropical plant, almost weedlike in numbers where I live (D.C. area) and produce a fruit unlike any other I've had at this lattitude. They taste like slightly tart bananas with a hint of apple, have a creamy texture, and are full of seeds about the size of M&Ms with almonds (do they still make those?). A fortunate find if you live in the mid-atlantic --they fruit in late summer.

Anyone living in the D.C area, you'll find tons of Pawpaw trees in the MD side of the park at Great Falls, along with myself waddling out of the woods with a sack full of fruits at the end of summer.

About pawpaws

(edit: apparently more widespread than I thought)

Edited May 1, 2003 by dave88 (log)

[Adam Balic]

As mentioned before they are an alternative name for "Papaya" in Australia. Infact, you will mostly see these fruit labled as Pawpaws in Australia, the term Papaya is mostly reserved for the red fleshed types.

[elyse]

So dave is the only one who's tried one?

[torakris]

I just ran across this again , this time in Nigella Lawson's new book. She talks about it being best (for this particular salad) at this unripe stage before before it turns yellow/orange. I am assuming she is then talking about a papaya?????

[Niall]

A custard apple is a completely different fruit to either a paw paw or papaya;

Here is some custard apple info.

And here is some good info for Papaya/ Paw Paw. I have been told that Paw Paw and Papaya are different fruits; but have yet to find anything on the web that explains this, and I eat them so rarely that I haven't noticed any difference.

EDIT: Just found a website that lists them as different fruit, although as adam said, it does mention that Australians (and therefore probably Donna Hay) use Paw Paw as a name for Papaya.

Edited May 12, 2003 by Niall (log)

[Adam Balic]

I just ran across this again , this time in Nigella Lawson's new book. She talks about it being best (for this particular salad) at this unripe stage before before it turns yellow/orange. I am assuming she is then talking about a papaya?????

Yes this sounds like Papaya/Pawpaw, not Custurd apple/Pawpaw.

[Saffy]

Wonderful fruit, pawpaw/papaya. It is called pawpaw as well as Papaya in Australia, PNG, Kenya, NZ and I am sure other places too. Green pawpaw is wonderful to julienne and put in salads, ripe pawpaw is divine to eat with salt and lemon/lime, mixed with strawberries in a fruit salad, or just simply eaten on it's own. It has a wonderful sweet melon like flavour.

You can get them in various colours yellow and orange being the most common. To choose a nice ripe pawpaw it should be greenish streaked with yellow on the outside with very slight give when pressed, like choosing a just ripe avocado. pawapaw like kiwifruit is a natural meat tenderiser. You have to add it to fruit salads last since it will make the other fruit soft for this reason.

Custard apples are completely different and not so good. ( At least in my opinion) We lived in Papua New Guinea for a couple of years and had many tropical fruits growing in the garden, breadfruit, jackfruit, macadamias, bananas, rose apples ( laulau) pawpaw, mangos, avocados, custard apples and pineapples.

My vote for best tropical fruit - mangosteens -- wonderful! nectar of the gods.

[dave88]

The pawpaw's I collect are exactly the ones shown in the link Guajolote and I have provided. In this area they are also called custard apples. Really, because of the seeds, they don't have a lot of meat yield for the weight of the fruit, but the ability to have fresh "tropical" fruit available perfectly ripe --and free-- are very worth it to me. I think they're very tasty, too.

It's interesting to me is the fact that so few people here know about 'em!

I believe the pawpaws found in my area are endemic to the US, but I'm not 100% sure.

[guajolote]

OK, I think we have figured out the paw paw question:

If you live in the US, it is a large (the largest fruit native to North America) custard apple like fruit that is usually found wild.

If your outside the US, it is probably a papaya.

Dave88, I may have tro visit you this fall to find some paw paws, I've been looking for 2 years and still haven't tasted one.

[eat2much]

In Donna Hay's books she usually points out that paw paw can be found in most Asian markets. The first time I ran accross the problem I went to my local Asian market and asked numerous employees for green paw paw only to be shown the dispaly of green peppers (bell peppers). After explaining that I wanted pawpaw not pepper, a customer at the market hailing from the Philipines overheard the discussion and informed the employees (and myself) that pawpaw is the name she used for papaya.

Note to Donna Hay: In future editions it might be an idea to indicate "a.k.a. papaya"

[alacarte]

Apparently paw paws also are a traditional fruit for Southern/ Appalachian cooking.

I attended a Culinary Historians lecture this past week, at which writers Matt Lee and Ted Lee spoke about traditional Appalachian cooking, and paw paws were mentioned in passing. (they also served samples of Kentucky ham, shuck beans, chow-chow relish and corn bread -- alas, no paw paws!)

The Lee bros. have an article on Kentucky cooking scheduled for Food & Wine magazine; also a book on same.

[mikeycook]

I know this is an old post, but we just moved into our new home in New York (Putnam County) and there are two Paw Paw trees/plants in the back yard, one of which, after several years, is just starting to show fruit (well, one fruit to be exact.) I had a couple of questions I couldn't find in the existing post and I am hoping someone can help me.

1. What color is the fruit when ripe? (It is currently green. Will it still be green when ripe?)

2. It is definitely not ripe now (still pretty hard.) Any idea when it should be ripe (i.e. what month?)

3. We have 2 Paw Paw plants, although one is not doing nearly as well as the other (kind of sickly looking, actually). The former owner said he was told that you have to have at least 2 Paw Paw trees for them to pollenate. Is that true?

Thanks in advance.

[mudbug]

mikeycook,

You'll likely get a pretty quick reply if you post your questions at this Edible Landscape Forum.

I know the topic of paw paws comes up every so often there.

[tryska]

Depends on the context, I'd say.  "Paw paw" is the name for papaya in Jamaica, so if you encountered the term in a Caribbean context...

yeah i thought paw-paw was another name for a green papaya - but that's in the caribbean:

http://www.gracefoods.com/carib_fruits/fruit_dict2.asp

i had no idea america had a custard apple "cousin" growing on it's soil...i'll have to look for it - that's my favorite fruit.

arggh...after fully reaidng through this thread - is a green pawpaw/papaya the same as a christophene?

Edited October 10, 2003 by tryska (log)

[mikeycook]

mikeycook,

You'll likely get a pretty quick reply if you post your questions at this Edible Landscape Forum.

I know the topic of paw paws comes up every so often there.

Thanks for the post!! The previous owner of our house was a landscape architect and there are several other edible items on the property.

This is a great source for help me figure out what they are (I, as you probably have gathered, am NOT a landscape architect.)

Edited October 10, 2003 by mikeycook (log)

[Squeat Mungry]

Apparently paw paws also are a traditional fruit for Southern/ Appalachian cooking.

I spent much of my "growing up" time in my family's home state of North Carolina, and I can attest to this. There's even a kids' song called "Way Down Yonder in the Paw-Paw Patch". The heroine is one Susie, and that is where she is, "pickin' up paw-paws and puttin' 'em in her pocket." Later in the song it is revealed that -- incredibly -- Susie is "a queen of old Hawaii" and that "she can teach you how to hula."

In our family, they were used similarly to bananas.

Cheers,

Squeat

[gourmande]

I hope this doesn't add to the confusion, but I have a recipe for paw paw pickles that calls for firm, just ripe papayas.

[Episure]

Paw Paw aka Papaya when raw is used as the main ingredient in the Thai salad: SOM TAM.

It's also a powerful meat tenderizer - Papain.

[mudbug]

Ok, for clarification and educational purposes, I'm posting the following for everyone in an attempt to prevent any further confusion.

As discovered above, there can be several common and colloquialÊnames for the exact same cultivar of a plant which produces a specific fruit. The only sure way to differenciate between the different plants is to go by their Scientific aka Latin aka Botanical name (which will be in parentheses below), instead of their common names. This name will refer to the exact same plant anywhere in the world and avoids confusion.

So, when we're talking about the "paw paw" that torakris was referring to, we're discussing Asimina triloba.

PAW PAW (Asimina triloba) (a-sim'I-na tri-lo'ba)

They grow well in Missouri as well as an understory tree (shade loving).

Common Names: Indiana banana, Hoosier banana, pawpaw, custard apple, dog banana, false-banana, pawpaw-apple, fetid-shrub, wild banana, common pawpaw

PAPAYA (Carica papaya)

Common Names: Chich Put, Custard Apple, Fan Kua, Kavunagaci,

Lechoso, Lohong Si Phle, Mapaza, Mu Kua,

Papailler, Papaw, Papaye, Papayer, Pawpaw Tree,

Pawpaw, Pepol, Tinti, Wan Shou Kuo, Betik petik,

Gandul, Katela gantung, Kates, Kepaya, Kuntaia

CUSTARD APPLE (Annona reticulata)

English: sugar apple, sweetsop, custard apple

Spanish: sarumuyo, an—n;

Portuguese: ata, pinha

CUSTARD APPLE (Annona reticulata)

English: bullock's-heart, custard-apple, sugar apple

French: annone rŽticulŽe, coeur de boeuf

Spanish: anona coraz—n, coraz—n de buey, mam‡n, anona, anona colorada, anona rosada, coraz—n

Portuguese: cora‹o de boi; other: cahuex, pox, qualtzapotl, tzumuy

Other: tapotapo papaÔaø (Cook Islands), uto ni bulamakau, chotka sarifa (Fiji)

MANGOSTEEN (Garcinia mangostana)

Haven't tried the mangosteen, but it looks absolutely deeeelish!

Hope this helps clarify... from your resident gardener.