Why You Shouldn’t Pick Those White Stringy Bits Off Your Mandarins
A mandarin is super-quick fruit. Out of its jacket and bite bite bite, and all your vitamins are in. But some people spend almost fifteen minutes picking all those white threads and bits off the mandarin segments. Is that necessary? Sensible?
Those white bits of a mandarin taste bitter, the fussy eaters explain. That’s why they happily spend minutes picking and peeling at a mandarin. A matter of patience, sure, but then you get to eat the tastiest mandarins, they claim.
Healthy membranes
But that’s not true, it turns out. Those white membranes are packed with fiber and pectin. Healthy! So just eat them, nothing to worry about. The fiber and pectin are good for your digestion, so if you eat your mandarin skin and all—or, well, the whole thing—it’s even healthier. Bonus: you’re done with your mandarin faster, so you can happily have another one. Twice as healthy!
No disappointment
If you do come across a mandarin with bitter membranes, it means your mandarin is too old. Tip from Flip: turn those old mandarins into a delicious cake and buy a fresh net, because fresh mandarins taste best. An expert told us how to select the tastiest mandarins, so you won’t have to deal with duds anymore.
Open a can
The membrane pickers might be better off choosing canned mandarins, because they’re as smooth and soft as a baby’s bottom. Back in 2009, Keuringsdienst van Waarde showed how that works: they go into a gigantic bath, where a chemical substance burns off the membranes and white threads. The stuff is called caustic soda, and you can also use it to unclog a stubbornly blocked sink.
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Source: Margriet
