Jackfruit
Artocarpus heterophyllus · Moraceae · also known as Langka, Nangka, Kathal
The largest tree-borne fruit on earth — up to 40 kg of bumpy green armor around honeyed golden pods that taste like Juicy Fruit gum, plus an unripe stage that shreds like pulled pork.
At a glance
- Taste
- Ripe pods are intensely aromatic and sweet — banana, pineapple, and bubblegum in one bite, with a satisfying chew. Unripe "green" jackfruit is neutral and fibrous, a texture chameleon for savory cooking.
- Origin
- Western Ghats of India
- Grown in
- India, Bangladesh, Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam
- Peak season
- Spring, Summer
- Notable varieties
- EVIARC Sweet (Philippines), Black Gold, J33, Dang Rasimi
Sensory & practical profile
Taste fingerprint
- Sweetness
- Tartness
- Aroma
- Juiciness
- Firmness
Approximate, at peak ripeness · 0–5
- Ripe when
- Smells loudly sweet through the skin, sounds hollow when slapped, and the spikes flatten and yield slightly.
- How to eat
- Oil your knife and hands first (the latex is glue-stubborn); eat the ripe pods and boil the seeds like chestnuts.
- Typical price
- Budget
At up to 40 kg it is the largest tree-borne fruit on earth, and its flavour famously resembles Juicy Fruit gum.
When it's in season, by region
| Region | Peak months |
|---|---|
| South Asia | Mar–Jun (India) |
| Southeast Asia | Apr–Aug |
How to select & store
Picking a ripe one
A ripe jackfruit smells loudly sweet at the skin and sounds hollow when slapped; the spikes flatten and yield slightly. Most markets sell cleaned pods by the tray — a mercy, since breaking one down is sticky work.
Storing it
Whole ripe fruit keeps only days; cleaned pods refrigerate 5–7 days and freeze well. Oil your knife and hands before cutting a whole one — the white latex is glue-stubborn.
Practical uses
🍽️ Culinary
- Ripe pods eaten fresh, layered into halo-halo, or simmered for turon filling with saba banana
- Ginataang langka — unripe jackfruit braised in coconut milk, a Filipino classic
- Green jackfruit as a meat substitute: "pulled pork" sandwiches, curries (kathal biryani)
- Seeds boiled or roasted like chestnuts; jackfruit chips in Kerala and Vietnam
🌿 Health & traditional
- Used in Ayurveda and Southeast Asian folk medicine as a cooling, strengthening food
- Research interest in jackfruit flour as a low-glycemic staple substitute
🎎 Cultural
- National fruit of Bangladesh; state fruit of Kerala and Tamil Nadu
- A single tree can feed a family — jackfruit is a serious food-security crop across the tropics
Everything about jackfruit is oversized. The fruit can reach 40 kilograms — heavyweight-champion territory for anything that grows on a tree — and a single specimen contains hundreds of golden, waxy pods. Its flavor is just as loud: the closest description most people land on is Juicy Fruit gum, and that’s not a coincidence — the gum’s flavor profile famously resembles jackfruit’s ester chemistry.
Two fruits in one tree
Like papaya, jackfruit lives a double life. Ripe, it’s an aggressive dessert. Unripe, its neutral, stringy flesh absorbs any sauce and shreds convincingly — which is why green jackfruit became the plant-based world’s favorite “pulled pork” and why Filipino kitchens have been braising it in coconut milk (ginataang langka) since long before that trend.
Don’t skip the seeds
Each pod wraps a large seed that boils or roasts into something between a chestnut and a new potato. In Kerala they’re curried; in the Philippines they’re boiled with salt and snacked on. Discarding them is leaving food on the table.
In the Philippines
Langka appears twice at the Filipino table: ripe strands sweetening halo-halo and turon, and young fruit stewed in coconut milk with chili and dried fish. EVIARC Sweet, a Davao-bred variety, is the current pride of local growers.
