Canned Jackfruit users. What a gwan?

Anyone had any success with cooking Jackfruit?

What’s your prep and cooking tips?

I tried it last night for the first time and was a little underwhelmed. I’ve had a pitta made with it before from an event and it had a good amount of bite, firmer and lots of taste. Mine was pretty bland and quite soft.

I emptied it from the can, rinsed it well, boiled it for half hour or so, pulled it apart a bit, dried and squidged it a bit, pulled it apart again, fried with some onions and loads of Fajita seasoning.

Still wasn’t the best.

Any good methods you’ve found?

Some Jackfruit recently

I too was underwhelmed with home experience. I think it needs a lot of sauce to break it up into. Jackfruit burgers are the best use of it that I’ve had (not homemade, yet)

You need to cook it in a sauce for min 40mins or so. Tomatoes, onions,garlic, bbq sauce, chilli, peppers, paprika. Stuff like that.

It’s still not great though. Better in a chilli with kidney beans.

I found some at the back of the cupboard last week. I emptied it and fried it with some onion, garlic, spices then threw some rice in. I’d recommend cooking it as much as possible so it firms up.

My granddaughter is a veggie and I gave her a tin of Jackfruit, some heart of palms and some artichoke hearts as examples of things she might want to add to her diet of cheese sandwiches and pasta.

She rated Jack Fruit as the most flexible in terms of stuff you could do with it.

Did seem a bit like plastacene food in that it was nothing as a raw ingredient but allowed you to do stuff with it. Pulled ‘pork’ jack fruit was very nice and quite surprisingly filling. As an omnivorous bloke I often find veggie food unfulfilling but the filed pitta bread was great.

Better half buys tins of jack fruit, tastes great in mildly spicy veggie dishes.

One night I was fending for myself and decided to use a whole tin, my stomach was in knots for hours soon after I finished eating! 😆

jackfruit curry is good, but Ive only had fresh jackfruit, not canned

Maybe technique? Boil it in some stock first, then cook for a while before using it in a recipe. ie this one’s for a fried chicken flavour pattie:

nb he uses almond milk for the batter but I’d use oat milk or whatever you want

If for a curry, chilli, stew or pulled pork recipe etc then begin in the same way then leave overnight in a bag of marinade before adding to recipe. I used to use this method for cuban roast pork. It should work with the fruit.

Just season and cook the jackfuit in stock as above (maybe a little salt and garlic powder) before adding to marinade. Add fat to marinade by using refined coconut oil.

https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2016/06/cuban-roast-pork-shoulder-mojo-recipe.html

I have only had curries too or fresh – I guess you could do some sort of pulled pork style concoction with it but you def need sauce to break it down I’d think.

Didn’t even know they come tinned! They grow outside my house in Singapore – bloody huge great things.

Yeah I’ve not seen one as an actual fruit. Never even heard of them until a year or so ago. Certainly not seen one in Asda Waitrose.

From an environmental view, Pigs are grown in the UK, Jackfruit isn’t. Does that negate any of its benefits? Also does Jackfruit have much nutritional value or is it mainly about texture replication?

depends if you’re vegetarian or vegan I suppose

From an environmental view, Pigs are grown in the UK, Jackfruit isn’t. Does that negate any of its benefits? Also does Jackfruit have much nutritional value or is it mainly about texture replication?

Good question.

Jackfruit contains a moderate amount of calories, providing 155 in a one-cup (165-gram) serving. Approximately 92% of the calories come from carbs, while the rest come from protein and a small amount of fat (3).

Furthermore, jackfruit contains some of almost every vitamin and mineral that you need, as well as a decent amount of fiber (3).

One cup of sliced fruit provides the following nutrients (3):

Calories: 155
Carbs: 40 grams
Fiber: 3 grams
Protein: 3 grams
Vitamin A: 10% of the RDI
Vitamin C: 18% of the RDI
Riboflavin: 11% of the RDI
Magnesium: 15% of the RDI
Potassium: 14% of the RDI
Copper: 15% of the RDI
Manganese: 16% of the RDI

What makes jackfruit unique from other fruits is its protein content. It provides more than 3 grams of protein per cup, compared to 0–1 grams in other similar types of fruit, such as apples and mangoes (3, 4, 5).

Nonetheless, it would be wrong to think that a few pieces of jackfruit in a sauce is going to provide the same (for good or ill) nutritional profile as pork or poultry. I wouldn’t consider using it as a direct ‘substitute‘ except for the occasional novelty-meal such as the one in the video I posted. It may look like pulled pork but making a comparison/substitution (nutritionally-speaking) is as senseless/abstract to me as chopping up some spam and calling it a fresh fruit salad.

I don’t see how you’d compare ‘like for like, because they have entirely different nutritional profiles with different costs and benefits to health.

Our household is 99% plant-fed (excepting local free-range eggs) and we get protein from a number of sources. I’ve yet to buy a can of jackfruit simply because I haven’t looked into it/don’t know what it offers. This thread has me looking.

A single jackfruit can feed a whole family for a couple of days, not just because it is so big but also because of its versatility – it can be prepared in a variety of ways to make both sweet and savoury dishes, from Jackfruit pulled pork sandwiches to jackfruit ice-cream, cookies and ripe jackfruit cake. The crop, which grows on trees that reach up to 20 metres high and can produce hundreds of fruits a year when mature, is an everyday food in southeast Asia. “It can be eaten as a fruit when it is ripe. It can also be served as curry, juice, cream, and cakes,” says the World Atlas.

The flesh of the jackfruit is a good source of plant-based protein and the seeds are edible, with a sweet, milky taste. They can be made into flour, while unripe jackfruit is used in Indian, Sri Lankan, Cambodian, and Thai cuisine – its bland taste and fibrous texture making it an ideal meat substitute that takes on the flavours with which it is cooked.

The fruit is also easy to grow, requires relatively little water and is pretty robust, being resistant to pests and diseases, according to one of the fruit’s main evangelists, Indian jackfruit farmer and farming magazine editor Shree Padre, in an interview with farming website Down To Earth.

Studies show that the yields of key crops, such as wheat, rice and maize, will be hit by climate change, so jackfruit could become an increasingly important foodstuff in future. And rather than compete with other crops, it can help them – jackfruit is often planted with other fruit crops, with its size and resilience to wind making it a useful windbreak for more vulnerable exotic tropical fruits.

https://www.lombardodier.com/contents/corporate-news/responsible-capital/2019/april/jackfruit-leads-the-cash-in-on-h.html

The vast majority of pork and poultry is reared with imported soy. So you’d be probably be better killing your own pig or purchasing pork products from the posh farm that doesn’t import feed.

The UK’s annual demand for soy equates to an area about the size of Wales, according to a recent report by the WWF and RSPB, with roughly 65% of this located in Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay, all high-risk countries for deforestation.

– at least 90% of soy in the UK is fed to animals and at most 10% is used for food;

– soy use is particularly high in poultry and pork production;

– dairy production is also a significant overall user of soy, but the amount of soy used to produce a kilogram of dairy protein is much lower than for a kilogram of chicken protein.

The vast majority of the UK’s soy imports come from South America. This soy consists almost entirely of GM soy and is therefore unlikely to be used much, if at all, for food in the UK.

https://fcrn.org.uk/fcrn-blogs/soy-uk-what-are-its-uses

That should be something to chew at (SWIDT!) but don’t have time at the minute to do all the cross-checking and source-verification/bias assessments.

It’s weird. But less weird when cooked.
This (or something like it, just stock and thyme isn’t really enough taste for me) is pretty good: https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/jackfruit-bolognese-vegan-parmesan

I “pull” it to get rid of the large chunks and then chuck it in a small roasting tray with loads of flavouring: soy sauce, miso paste, tomato puree, smoked paprika, finely chopped red onion, garlic/garlic powder, cayenne, black treacle, bit of oil.

Cook it in a low-ish oven, 160 or so, stirring once or twice, til you’ve got a few nice crispy bits on the top, but still plenty of soft saucy goodness. As an omnivore I really enjoy it. Would far rather have that than some really shit meat that’s similarly been covered in flavouring to mask its shittiness.

As per above, I use fork to pull it, chop some onion, frying pan with olive oil, add loads of smoked paprika, peper and garlic and fry. Had it last week with rice and broccoli, and then used leftovers as topping on home made vegan pizza. Love it.