ELEPHANT APPLE - Elephants LOVE this fruit and I do too! 

For all the species nerds, here's an episode on a very rare, bite-sized relative of the Elephant Apple: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-wFuR9PQdhps.html

Regular mustard oil can't be sold for cooking in the US because it's high in erucic acid, which can have harmful effects. My understanding is that the mustard oils labeled "For External Use" in the US are the same oils people cook with in India. However, there's now mustard oil available in the US that's low in erucic acid and, thus, labeled for cooking. If we can get this in Oklahoma, I'm sure it's available in NYC.

There is a elephant fruit tree near(ish: one km or so) my house. In Brazil this fruit is also called "Fruta Cofre" (Safe Fruit (like in money safe)): people in Brazil used to place a copper coin when the fruit is about to close, and mail it to Portugal (in the colony / empire times) saying here in Brazil we had money trees :)

It's worth mentioning that the burning/stinging "pineapple acid" you were feeling is not really an acid. What you are feeling is bromelain, an enzyme that digests protein (so it is eating your mouth as you eat it). It can be used as a meat tenderizer. It also has a lot of claimed health benefits, but the only use that has been proven is the use of it to remove dead skin after a burn.

Love this new format. Taking the extra time to prepare the fruit you're trying in a few different preparation methods feels so complete and satisfying.

Love this channel. It is insane that there so many fruits that I have never heard of.

In Trinidad we call it Chalta...we cut it up (peel hard skin)...boil, drain, cook with curry, cumin, masala, garlic, salt and lots of pepper to taste. Add sugar due to acidity

In pineapple it not only the acid that can make you uncomfortable. It is also an enzyme called bromelain. Bromelain decomposes proteins which technically means that when you eat pineapple the pineapple tries to eat you.

Request: a compilation of particularly sketchy knife usage by Jared with classical music in the background. I don't care whose channel it's on.

You need to cook the lentil together with the other ingredients. Start with cold oil and pop seeds with a lid, then add onions; cook for a few minutes on medium, then add your "apples" and water to cover. Add ground spices, herbs, and salt. Cook until done.

The cross section of that apple looks like a biblically accurate angel lol.

Yooo the dead silence of the group of guys eating the elephant apple is hilarious!!! Litterally no noise! they must have gotten into a fight or something. soo funny.

"The peel is better than the fruit on the inside...". That PERFECTLY describes the Kumquat!

You always find the most interesting and to put it mildly, bizarre fruits. You put forth things that most people have and will not ever see or hear of. It's mucilaginous like okra which is actually a good thing for human gut. Thanks for another amazing fruit.

wow, that bag of frozen elephant apple looked perfect for a pie!

I think Star Trek could benefit from your consultation when selecting "alien" fruits and veg for the show. Typically, the most exotic they get is dragon fruit and ginger.

Since mushrooms are the fruiting body of fungus, and there are many wonderful varieties, that's what I want to see. Bring a mushroom expert along to give us the lore, too.

The cross section looks like a slice through a banana (Musa) stem! I’m a botanist, and I was completely thrown by it for a bit.

I went a few times to Assam and the way i was thaught is, a few big chunks of (probably) green elephant apple are boiled with the dahl (without squishing). When served you fish out one chunk, squeeze the juice into the dahl and discart the fiber. It adds a complex sour flavor, not sure how well preserved it is in frozen fruit. And yes, the honking in Guwahati is just insane, it's a language in itself

A lot of inedible fiber? Sounds like a good candidate for Juice or Jam!

We have that too in the Philippines. Its locally called Katmon. Its smaller and sour though and we usually don't eat it as it is. We use it as souring agent for our stew or make pickles and jam.

It is called Chaaltaa in Eastern India. Usually used in sweet caramel pickles.

I want to do some prints with a cross section. Beautiful!

Hey! I just wanted to say I loved the formatting and editing of this video! I see that you maybe implemented some of the stuff from the community poll. I loved the different ways you used the fruit. The only thing I think it needs is maybe a little bit of history, but overall, I loved the style of this video! Keep it up!

I really enjoyed 6 years older Jared being seriously annoyed during most of the taste test.

It's cool looking. Elephants need a lot of fiber and its good. So I understand why they eat it.

That tree is grown here in Taiwan for ornamental purposes and I never seen anyone use it. Those fruits can get up to maybe 1-2 kg so I always avoid standing under the tree.

in sri lanka we use that slime as a shampoo.

Damn, Jared! You made real authentic Panch Poran - label and all... Impressive ❣

Your research is exceptional, demonstrating a deep understanding and thorough analysis. The precision and clarity in your work are truly impressive. It's evident that a lot of dedication and effort have gone into it. Your contribution is invaluable and sets a high standard for excellence.

Thanks for everything you do. Believe it or not, but you are top inspiration for many amateur gardeners.

15:55 supposed to be that way cause its sour, its gonna make ur teeth sensitive, as a native bengali (the pach foron dal with chalta is a bengali cousin) I can say u did a good job but make sure to add power jira, dhaniya, tumaric and chilli while boiling the dal along with onions (Shallots for u americans) chilis and garlic, u may add ginger if u wish, this is a typical summer food, it should give u the sour punch without changing the flavor profile of the dal, cause remember we mix other curry into the dal, so if the dal itself is sour its not nice, but we do make sour dal too, which is a more indian cousin in a way, in my family we make both, depending on the type of raw sour fruits we r using or how sour we fancy, in that case we would use sour mango not elephant apple

Interesting to know more about the edible uses of elephant apple, I didn't know it could also be eaten raw. As an aside, the botanical family it belongs to (Dilleniaceae) is possibly as old as the Cretaceous, so maybe dinosaurs were eating them before the elephants. It also makes for a spectacular ornamental tree if you live in the tropics or humid subtropics - big magnolia-like flowers, pleated leaves and copper-colored flaky bark.

That is one of the craziest cross sections ive ever seen, awesome fruit

I always thought the decision to make the elephant power-up an apple in Super Mario Bros Wonder was random, I never realized that it was based on a real fruit!

It's incredible that you keep finding and showing us fruit I've never even seen described anywhere

That "burning sensation" is likely from oxalates (oxalic acid crystals) which are notorious for producing kidney stones. Cooking will neutralize the oxalates.

I keep learning about fruits from you.

I do love your fruit expedition videos!

My north indian friend says that people use their horns to just signify that they're doing...oh, anything in general. I'll have to ask him if he's had this!

So the mustard oil thing, if you use canola, it's Almost the same thing. Mustard is the high acid version of the oil. the plants are like brother and sister. and cousins of the the other wildly used Kale plants.

Very cool, the cross section in this video looks cooler than any cross section on google images

You would love it down south man. All the different types of food you can eat and grow

I've seen these growing in some parks here in south florida. I did bring home one of the fruits and it was rock hard, even though it was on the ground. After a couple of days it did omit a very pleasant fragrance, sort of tropical like but after a couple of weeks it turned into a nasty bad onion like smell and I ended up throwing it out. I'd like to see if I can get the seeds out and try growing it from seed

If the flavour is nice but the fiber is inedible I'd be tempted to add water and blend and strain it to juice it and add that to curries to add that bright flavour, like lemon or lime juice. Or try and add sugar to that for a straight up drinking juice?

Ur videos and presenting style just get better and better

Thank you for implementing the cooking section. This helps round out the video, and it helps us see what else we can do with it. Thanks again.

Looks like it could make a nice addition to edible arrangements & a big array of dishes, raw or cooked

Did I miss it? Where was the sweetness/tartness scale?

"Dead silent" *dude furiously smacking his mouth while eating*

16:22 The hand flourish! 😂 I love it.

I consider myself an adventurous eater, but you, Sir, have me in awe.

Flappy Bits? Good!

0 chance it'll get read at this point, but people in India (especially people in those little go cart scooter things) will honk to indicate they are passing a larger vehicle and on what side. It's all a dance that ends when everyone gets home or you do it to a car a tourist is driving and get flattened. Its practical in some ways, much harder to miss the noise than any turn signal from those tiny bikecarts, but understandably really really annoying to anyone who hasn't grown up with it.

This is a tee shirt worthy fruit for sure!

What the heck, that's a cool looking fruit!

Jared, once again you have made an excellent episode. I have never heard of this fruit before. Thank you for such and interesting video.

@9:29 Yes. You said it right. A-char is popular here too.

A little real deal mustard oil for a few things here and there is worth it because the flavor is so distinct. Use sparingly though because it's not actually good for you since it can lead to myocardial lipidosis (fat on your heart, no bueno), but I think it's very dose dependent as to whether you would expect to see any negative health effects. :)

Absolutely beautiful!

always love a cooking segment

You previous video got me curious and a few months later I got the opportunity to buy fresh Elephant Apple from BigBasket (online grocery shop). They are not the best things I've had but you can make good pickle out of them. Also they are tough and messy to peel. I live in Jharkhand, India. ❤ your videos.

Hi Jared, the Ruchi Chalta Achar (Elephant apple pickle you showed at 10:20) is a traditional "Chalta" pickle from Bangladesh, and the product itself is an export of Bangladesh. And that's the kind of achar you will see people consuming most of the time, as it is made from dried elephant apple and made to last for a long time. The raw sour spicy achar kind is more of a seasonal thing.

LOVE Indian pickles. First thing I learned to make at the New York temple was lime pickle. Big huge bowls of it. Yum.

You could try to puree and sieve out the elephant apple fla or and then add that to the cooking dal mixture

There is always a "way" to prepare unusual foods. Poverty breeds ingenuity. Never stop trying foods you found to be unpleasant, someone out there knows how to make it good/right. Aloha!

Great video. I'm glad you tried cooking it. I love making curries and trying new flavors. I have never tried and probably never will try elephant apple, as I'm not going to go out of my way to get it or try it but if I happen to come across it I'll try it.

Haven't watched your videos in a few... My 11yo still remembers you though... Thought of your videos the other day when I got a cheramoya from Wegmans

love the residents t shirt!!!!

You lucked out getting fresh I tried canned recently and it’s nice I also loved the makok

looks like the karmic wheel on the indian flag. 🇮🇳

6:14 ~ Someone throws up next door.

The manually drawn green line in the thumbnail really did it for me 😂

Hey Jared! You made my day with a new video! - Emily

U.S.: mustard oil is bad for you. Also U.S.: McDonalds on every corner!

Thanks Jared.

If you're not fond of the fibrous material in the elephant apple, why not cook it till it's very soft, then push it through a sieve the way one does with tamarind, which is also quite fibrous?

In observing the relation between sight and taste, have you ever done or considered doing a blind taste test of some of the more unusual/ difficult to determine the taste of fruits? Hearing how so many have a similarity to apples/ guava, it makes me wonder!

On 2:31 - I have a theory that the silence in these village videos may be influenced by the Primitive Technology channel from Australia which does the same thing (apparently the guy behind it was too lazy to put in narration and that stuck), and the lack of dialogue may helped appeal to a lot of viewers overcoming the language barrier just like why ppl loved Mr Bean - so folks from places like India which have lots of languages in one region do the same for videos that they hope will reach wider audiences...

Mmmm snail trails off the flappy bits 😂

Flappy bits for everyone 🙌🏾🤣

Slimy flaps? Sounds wonderful.

I believe the special "heat" from pineapples is actually the effect of an enzyme - what is basically a digestive enzyme - rather than some kind of acid.

yay was thinking about your channel today..... behold my power to manifest that which I desire just kidding but still yay.

according to my AI, the inner pulp of elephant apples IS edible. It's really tart, so not usually eaten raw, but it's used in curries, jams, etc.

I've never imagined "flappy bits" on anything to actually taste good lol

It's called Chalta in my nation and it's very popular for pickle making.

Neat I sell those pocket knives at my store lol. For being super cheap $2-$3 it's actually a pretty good blade lol.

Look up "ou khatta" if you are interested in a different way of cooking elephant apple. It's a sweet and sour side dish.

I am glad that they passed that law. People can be incredibly selfish.

It is also popular in Brazil, but not as a fruit: people use it as medicine. I use a few in my kombuchas and a lot to fed my pet pig.

Darn! I've seen these laying on the ground in Thailand and my gal here said; "can't eat! no good!" so, I didn't even bother.

We, the Indians, usually pill it from outside as well as from inside before use. If you don't, you will get some bitterness from it. We typically use it to pickle, or cook it with some other vegetables. And obviously, I never swallow the fibre. I think most of us never swallow the fibre.

Cool!

next try what mammoths ate

Your cutting skills make me a little breathless.

Have you tried a Joshua Tree fruit? Will you do a video on it?

African elephants like marula fruit. Should give that a try

Good show

Here in South Africa we soak the lentils before cooking it but I assume that if you cook the apple longer due to its fibre content then wont it produce better results? just an assumption because since the flavour hasnt mixed in with the dish and it looked pretty hard when you mashed it lol