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Picking Produce

Is It Ripe Yet? How to Pick Produce, Meat and Fish That Tastes Good

The best cooking starts at the store, with a melon that is sweet all the way through or a steak with enough fat to stay juicy. These answers cover the signs that matter for each one: color, weight, smell, give under your thumb, and the few labels worth reading.

Picking well only helps if the food lasts once you get it home, so pair these with how long things keep. A tomato that is not fully ripe belongs on the counter, and a cut avocado needs air kept off the surface to stay green.

Ripe Fruit

11 answers

Avocados, melons, stone fruit, berries, apples and more at their best.

Whole dark purple Hass avocado beside a halved one with pale green flesh and seed

What Are the Gentle Signs an Avocado Is Ripe and Ready to Cut Open?

Pile of striped watermelons at a store with a few cut open to show red flesh

What Should You Check to Pick a Ripe Watermelon That Tastes Sweet?

Golden and green pineapples in protective netting on a grocery store display beside avocados

Which Signs Show a Pineapple Is Ripe, and Can a Green One Be Sweet?

Whole ripe cantaloupe with tan netting beside two cut halves showing orange flesh and seeds

Which Clues Point to a Ripe Cantaloupe Before It Goes in Your Cart?

Blue glass bowl of mangoes in green, yellow and red, some with dark freckles

What's the Surest Way to Tell If a Mango Is Ripe When the Color Lies?

Rows of white baskets filled with ripe peaches on a sunny farm stand shelf

Is There a Reliable Way to Pick Ripe Peaches and Nectarines?

Smooth pale honeydew melons stacked beside netted cantaloupes in a grocery store fruit display

What Signs Show a Honeydew Melon Is Ripe Before You Bring It Home?

Ripe strawberries with green caps packed in a clear plastic clamshell

Is There a Reliable Way to Pick Sweet Strawberries Before You Buy?

Bunch of yellow bananas with a few small brown marks resting on a kitchen counter

Which Bananas Should You Pick So They Ripen on Your Own Schedule?

Rows of red, green and yellow apple varieties stacked in a grocery store produce display

Can You Choose Fresh Apples With a Real Crunch by Touch and Color?

Four pears in a row, from yellow and green to speckled red and deep red

Is a Firm Pear Ready to Eat, and How Do You Know a Pear Is Ripe?

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Vegetables at Their Peak

4 answers

Tomatoes, corn, greens and alliums at their freshest.

Pile of red tomatoes still on green vines at a grocery store display

Which Signs Help You Choose a Ripe Tomato With Real Flavor?

Pile of sweet corn at a market stall, some ears in green husks with brown silk tips

What Should You Look For to Pick Fresh Sweet Corn at the Market?

Close view of fresh asparagus spears with tightly closed, pointed tips and smooth green stalks

Which Signs Mean Asparagus, Broccoli and Green Beans Are Fresh?

Whole head of purple striped garlic beside a split bulb and two plump cloves

Which Clues Help You Choose Good Garlic and Onions That Will Keep?

Eggs, Meat and Fish

5 answers

Freshness and quality signs at the counter and at home.

Brown and white fresh eggs resting in a straw nest box, the kind you might check with an egg float test

How Can You Tell an Egg Is Fresh, and Is the Egg Float Test Reliable?

Four raw ribeye steaks with white marbling running through the red meat, sprinkled with salt

What Should You Look for to Choose a Good Steak at the Meat Counter?

Whole whiting, pompano, white perch and flounder packed in crushed ice in a grocery seafood case

At the Seafood Counter, How Do You Tell If Fish Is Fresh or Old?

Raw chicken leg quarters with pale yellow skin laid out in a steel tray at a store counter

Which Signs Help You Choose Fresh Chicken, Whole or Cut Into Parts?

A heap of raw head-on shrimp with gray, translucent shells and bits of ice at a market

What Separates Good Quality Shrimp From Tired Shrimp at the Store?