Mamey Sapote

It can be difficult to find fresh mamey fruits outside of areas where they're grown, but frozen pulp is more widely available in supermarkets. If you do find the fresh fruit, it can be a challenge to tell if it's ripe. Try the scratch test: a light scratch with a fingernail should show orange flesh underneath the skin rather than green.

Some varieties are firmer than others, but the fruit should be somewhat soft underneath a firmer skin — both the tip and stem ends should be slightly squishy. Avoid fruit with obvious breaks in the skin or bruises. Slightly underripe fruit will ripen after a few days at room temperature, but very firm fruit picked too early may never fully ripen.

Fruit that isn't perfectly ripe should be kept at room temperature until it is soft and the flesh is deep orange underneath the skin. Ripe mamey sapote should be eaten as soon as possible for best texture and flavor, but a ripe fruit can be kept in the refrigerator for several days.

If you're lucky enough to find fresh mamey, eat it fresh by cutting it in half, removing the large seed, and scooping out the flesh with a spoon. The fresh fruit can also be added in chunks to smoothies or juiced with other fruits.

Batido de Mamey: The traditional Cuban milkshake is especially popular and can be made with fresh or frozen mamey. Creamy, sweet, and deeply tropical — one of the great Caribbean beverages.

Baked Goods: Mamey can replace bananas in muffins and quick breads for a richer, more complex flavor. It lends itself beautifully to flans, bread puddings, and custard-style raw desserts.

Savory Uses: Mamey sapote brings a sweet element to creamy salad dressings and sauces for roasted and grilled meats. Its richness and creamy texture also makes it a substantial meat substitute in vegan cooking.

Mamey sapote can be scooped out, pulped, and frozen for several months — this is the most practical way to preserve and use it year-round. Mamey can also be combined with other fruits and made into a jam.

Mamey sapote is an excellent source of Vitamin B-6 and Vitamin C, and a good source of fiber and potassium. Its rich, dense flesh makes it one of the more calorie-dense tropical fruits — more akin in energy to avocado than to watery melons or citrus.

The mamey sapote goes by many names: mamey, zapote, and zapote grande are common across Latin America, while it is called chico-mamey in the Philippines.

An individual mamey fruit takes a year or more to mature on the tree — one of the longest ripening times of any common fruit.

It was the arrival of Cuban immigrants to Florida in the late 20th century that spurred the mamey sapote to be much more widely grown in the US, transforming South Florida into the center of domestic production.

Pesticides: Mamey trees can be grown as backyard trees with minimal chemical usage. Because the fruit suffers from few damaging insect pests, pesticides are not a serious concern. If buying fresh mamey and concerned about synthetic chemicals, ask the vendor about their practices.

Seasonality: As a tropical fruit, mamey sapote is available throughout much of the year. Depending on the area, peak season runs from late winter through early fall.

Geography: Originally from Central America — in an area spanning present-day Nicaragua and Southern Mexico — the mamey had already spread around the Caribbean long before Spanish colonists arrived. Spanish colonists later took it to the Philippines and Vietnam. In the US, it is limited to South Florida, Hawai'i, and Puerto Rico.