Don't be afraid of Ugli Fruit

By Elizabeth Prata

Our grocery store has a section where clerks place produce in a net bag and sell it for 99 cents. Normally, the fruit or vegetables are still good. For example, a tray of cherry tomatoes might have one lone moldy or squashed tomato in the entire tray, but they reduce it from $3.99 to .99. I buy it, throw out the inedible tomato, and eat the rest.

The other day there were two ugli fruits in the bag. I have never eaten them before. One advantage of my strictness with the net bag program is if there is anything on the reduced shelf even remotely palatable, I try it, even if I'm unfamiliar with the item. That way, I expand my palate and learn to eat new things. Otherwise I'd simply be eating scrambled eggs, blueberries, oatmeal, or soup every day and only those things.

I looked up on Youtube how to peel and eat an Ugli fruit. These fruits are in the family of grapefruit and tangerine. They are apparently juicy but not sour like the grapefruit, more sweet like the tangerine. Oh, ok, good to know. I never was able to get past looking at the ugly wrinkled thick skin to think of the fruit inside. Wikipedia explains this way

The Jamaican tangelo, also known by proprietary names ugli fruit, or uniq fruit, is a Jamaican form of tangelo, a citrus fruit that arose through the natural hybridization of a tangerine or orange with a grapefruit (or pomelo).

Above, two eggs getting ready to be poached and eyeing the ugli fruit for cutting

Very easy to peel. Cut off the pointy top and peel with hands

The woman describing the process in her video said that the membrane of the fruit is tough to chew and bitter, unlike a grapefruit, so I dispensed with it. Without testing it for myself I could see she was right, it was hard to pierce with a knife to open the membrane and extract the juicy fruit inside.

Break in half and tear off pith

I poked the individual segments and sliced the membrane open, extracting
the fruit inside. Half an ugli fruti was enough for me, one serving

So my breakfast Saturday was two poached eggs on gluten free toast, home fries, and half an ugli fruit. If you see an ugli fruit in the store, don't pass it up. It's juicy and tasty, and only requires a bit of work. Preparing an ugli fruit is a lot less work than an orange or a pineapple. The fruit should be without mold or dark spots, orange-ish in color at peak ripeness, or light green at just underripe. Enjoy!