Green bananas are not ripe yet. Buy green bananas for maximum storage life without freezing. Choose firm fruit without dark spots or abrasions on the peel. Ripe bananas have turned their adult color. Most bananas are yellow when ripe, but some varieties are brown or red. The more the banana’s adult color appears on the peel, the riper it is. Brown-spotted bananas are the sweetest. As the small brown spots grow on the peel, the fruit inside ripens even further. When the peel shows more brown or black than yellow, the fruit is over-ripe. Avoid bananas that have a gray tint and look dull in color. This is a sign that the bananas were refrigerated, which interferes with proper ripening.
There is an alternative theory. The bananas may remain fresh longer inside the bag; take one out and leave the rest in the bag to test this. If the one that is removed ripens faster, then the bag may prove capable of retaining freshness. However, this may depend on the humidity and heat levels in the room where you’re storing the bananas.
Put green bananas into a brown paper bag to speed up the ripening process. Add an apple or a tomato to the bag to ripen the bananas in less than 1 day. Another way to speed up the ripening process is to place the bananas near other ripe fruit in a bowl, such as other ripe bananas.
Peel bananas and cut them into chunks or mash them before freezing. Portion the banana into the amounts you need to make a recipe. Put portioned bananas into zipper freezer bags or plastic containers and store them in the freezer.
