The Incredibly Strange LITTLE CHICKEN FRUIT (Cuayote) - Weird Fruit Explorer
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Episode 664: Cuayote
Species: Gonolobus edulis
Location: San Jose, Costa Rica
Special thanks to Marco for sharing this with me.
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How would you make use of this fruit's texture?
Might be interesting in an apple pie
That seed was one of the coolest things I have seen in a while, i had thought seeds that required such dispersal would be on the outside, it was so fascinating when you opened the fruit and it fell away like that. Makes me wonder if the fruit is destroyed by something in the wild to have created a dispersal reliant upon the seed being exposed.
@@-PRPLEHZE- Related species like Cryptostegia have fruits that dry out and split open to spread the seeds, so I'm guessing the cuayote does too when the fruit ripens or at least did in the past. Cultivation by humans could lead to a fleshier fruit that's better for us but means the seeds can't disperse without us planting them.
It seems like flavour-infusions are the way to go. Make different flavour profiles and use the fruit as a carrier for tossing into salads, or additions at the plating-up of a dish.
I wonder how it would go if you boiled it in broth and then used it in a pot pie- kind of like a cross between celery and chicken..?
The awkward knife handling has become part of your charm, as well as adding a frisson of danger. When you give up and pull the fruits apart with your fingers, it feels like you're struggling with the whole idea of tool use. It makes me feel like I'm routing for an underdog.
My thoughts exactly! =D
Grug no like use sharp rock
@@sussybawka9999 I think Grug would be just fine with use sharp rock; however, Grug, like everyone else, no like use really bad B&B knives, and Grug maybe too underfunded as of yet to hunt and gather good knives for his own cave in NYC.
@@anne-droid7739 Grug have Global Chef Rocks in NYC cave. But Grug too busy to sharpen them. Grug sad.
@@WeirdExplorer Grug have mate dragged back to cave by hair, have Grug not? In pre-Grug times, when this old lady was young, mate dragged back to cave by hair could be made to sharpen rocks. But this old lady be very glad Grug not make mate sharpen rocks! Good for Grug!
This plant is a tropical milkweed and fruit is an edible milkweed seed pod. The fruit weighs very little; it wants to dry out and release its cotton parachutes once seeds ripen. Growing, it looks very much like honeyvine milkweed ( Cynanchum laeve ) growing on chain link fencing. We used to harvest the dried pods for Xmas ornaments.
I was thinking that the seed shape and arrangement looks very similar to local milkweed pods I've seen in the US but with a spongy layer of fruit inside the shell. Supposedly some of these north American pods are also edible if harvested at the right stage and prepared correctly, but my poor innards freak out easily and I'm not brave enough just yet to try it.
@@PhosphorAlchemist
Some milkweeds are edible when young plants, as you can parboil and eat the shoots like asparagus and the tender leaves make good pot-herbs. The flower cluster balls ( that smell like lilac, btw ) are also good to eat. Other species of milkweed are quite deadly ( e.g. dogbanes ). Older leaves and stems shouldn't be eaten because the latex sap becomes toxic and milkweeds should only be eaten cooked anyway. Supposedly, you can also cook and eat younger milkweed seed pods, but from what Jared has shown us here, ¿ why bother ? Way too much work, I think, lol.
I mean it's in Apocynaceae, of which milkweeds (Asclepias) are also a family, but it's in family Gonolobus, not the Asclepias. however you are correct in that this is basically a giant milkweed pod
@@better.better Gonolobus, like Cynanchum and Asclepias, are all genera of milkweeds in the family Apocynaceae.
Despite your terrifying knife skills I love your videos. I am so glad you are doing this so I don't have to - I'm British and bananas are considered exotic here. Love your channel and your subject.
I thought I was the only one that winces every time Jared cuts something with a big knife. I keep expecting fingers to go flying.
Don't worry he literally use to eat swords while contorting.
@@scenenuf well technically he still does…
so not only is it shaped like a plucked chicken with wings at the back, but it sounds like one when you cut it and it's full of feathers!
its a headless inside out chicken!
@@WeirdExplorer oh no, you don't eat meat! 😉
Hahahaha I was reading this comment when I heard the squawk
These videos are unerringly some of the most valuable gems of content on TH-cam. You open a window to a world of botanical peculiarities that are seldom documented anywhere else.
Thank you!
When you opened it, it reminded me of a giant milkweed pod (which are edible), turns out they're in the same family! You should try milkweed pods and compare
Exactly what I was going to say! Wonder if it's a host plant (I checked, and both Monarch and Queen Butterflies live in Costa Rica).
I was thinking the same thing!
Exactly my thought.
They are the same family as willughbeias which is also quite rare to find and most species of willughbeias can be found in parts of Southeast Asia
Same! I was like, that's totally milkweed fluff.
It honestly never ceases to amaze me just how much of usability you get out of a fruit, I love your videos for that, kind of reminds me to think in more resourceful terms.
Thanks!
Those seeds look like milkweed (Asclepias incarnata, pretty common in northeastern US). I wonder if they're related. Googlin' time!
Edit: Yup! Milkweed is in the dogbane family, Apocynaceae.
not only in the same family but the same group, Asclepiadeae. Some milkweed pods may also be eaten when small and immature. However other typical apocynaceae like Oleander or Plumeria have totally different flowers and fruits and most are extremely poisonous.
Kinda what I was thinking too!
Asclepias syriaca is edible if prepared correctly and the parts eaten are young. Asclepias incarnata (FYI), is probably a better larval host for Monarchs because it is much more toxic (to us, not to milkweed butterflies, which sequester the toxins to make their bird and lizard predators very, very sick) and therefore should *never* be eaten by people. It is heart poison.
Marco and his mother are absolute gems. Idk if Marco sees these, but he (and Marco's mother) are mvp
I do
@@MeliponiculturaenCostaRica show us some of your fruit trees 👍
@Meliponicultura en Costa Rica bro you're awesome thanks for putting yourself out there to teach us!
@@JP-lw4ci Thanks!
That's absolutely wild, and brand spankin' new to me! I've never even heard of a dogbane or the cuayote before now! Thanks for another great video! I hope everyone is well and having a great day!
Interestingly this fruit is used to dial chocolate drinks in southern Vera Cruz, Mexico but only in a few villages around Xalapa
It reminds me a lot of a chonky milkweed pod. Whose seeds are also spread via wind. Very strange fruit you got there.
Looks like a large milkweed pod. You can cook milkweed pods too when they are picked small. Like Okra.
The way you describe the texture reminds me of wintergreen berries. Don't know if they're actually similar, but they're like little styrofoam fruits
Dogbane is a relative of milkweed in Canada, I think. Young milkweed pods can be eatern if cooked in several changes of water and if you see it growing, you can't miss the resemblance.
If you get the non-bitter variety of common milkweed ( _Asclepias syriaca_ ) then you don't need any changes of water. The flowerbuds are even better.
I always find your taste in music as interesting as your taste in fruit. Thanks for the videos!
From what my family has told me, "gallinita" refers more to the seed than the fruit, the feathers and scales kind of resemble chicken skin and feathers. You can also eat the seed raw for a very very mild but refreshing flavor. It really is not common at all, more of a traditional rural dish from times when people didn't have much money and made the most of what they had in hand.
This is neat. Thanks for trying out neat fruit that I did not know existed.
It would be interesting to see the results of the small chunks being put into a dehydrator after being cooked with the sugar and spices.
Great idea, just like crystalized chiverre Cucurbita ficifolia
wow how cool! the seed looks like the inside of a milkweed pod. I loved the texture and seeing you pull it apart was very satisfying. thanks!
Everything about this reminds me of milkweed pods, just much large and the pod very thick.
Milkweed is also in the Dogbane family Apocynaceae. It is actually edible and tasty in most stages of its life.
Only SOME milkweeds are edible. Asclepias syriaca in the East, and I believe A. speciosa west of the Mississippi River, are low toxicity and can be eaten. Many other species are very toxic (cardiac glycosides). Monarch caterpillars eat these plants to make themselves toxic to birds.
The sound on this episode was beautiful. When you cut into it it sounded like a chicken.
A totally new fruit to me.
maybe thats why its called little chicken, it chirps when you cut into it 🤔
@@WeirdExplorer when I saw the seed I wondered if the name came from the little seeds that are layered on top of one another kind of like feathers.
Its very much like a giant milkweed pod. Even the seeds are arranged the same way. Makes sense. Both are in the dogbane family. if you havent tried milkweed pods yet, you really should.
Marco should make YT vids about his gardening and bees and foraging. That'd be really cool
I should!
i did not at first notice the “chirpee” sound when he cut it like others pointed out but yah, it makes sense! And also, from a “modern perspective” per se, the chirp sound is like the chirp when rubbing bits of rubber together, or rubber soled shoes on a gym floor, typical latex or rubber things and the fruit as he says has natural latex in it. But again yah I can see how people hundreds of years ago would have named it that for its chirp sound when cutting it or looking at it.
I would love to try making waldmeister candies with this-- i think the cushiony crisp texture would pair well with the vanilla-but-sexier flavor of the sweet woodruff.
Your cooking videos always help me calm down.
Thanks for mentioning the latex in it. It's very helpful for me and my mother because of our allergy.
I'm amazed at how much the inside reminds me of mohogany fruit even when the genus isn't even close.
This looks like a cross between a dandelion and an avocado.
I think you could use this fruit as a "filler" ingredient. Like if you were to make an apple pie, you could add bits of this fruit to the apples when they are cooked. The flavours from the sweet apples and sugar will transfer into this fruit too. I think you would hardly notice the added Cuayote fruit on the finished product. So, if you happen to live in that country and have one of these trees, i think they might use it for that purpose if the taste is basically flavourless, as a filler ingredient.
Reminds me of a giant milkweed pod.
That’s because milkweed is also in the dogbane family and you can eat the seed pods as well but you’re suppose to boil them.
So interesting that it stays both fluffy and crisp through cooking.
Inside seed-core reminds me of milkweed when you crack the pod open before it’s ripe enough to split and toss seeds.
the name little hen does not actually come from the appearance of the fruit, but from the appearance of the seeds inside - the overlapping seeds are said to look like the overlapping feathers of a mother hen
Great video. I am so glad you are doing this. Most people are unaware of the amazing diversity of fruits and vegetables out there. Its subfamily is the milkweeds and that is the biggest milkweed seedpod I have ever seen! Thanks.
Amazing!
I would try to fry or bake it. Maybe rosemary & garlic, kinda like a potato. I wonder how it would react with oil or fat, would it be like shrimp chips or pork rinds in texture? What a wonderfully curious fruit :)
The peeled and chopped fruit looks a lot like the inside of a couch cushion after a cat or dog has decided to tear it up🤣
That thing looks like a giant milkweed seed pod, inside and out.
Its in the same family!
same family and same tribe, Asclepiadeae. Some milkweeds may also be eaten when small and immature, kinda like okra
Re air bnb knives. If you can't pack your own knife, pack a little quick sharpener to make your life easier.
That is a great idea for the next time I travel. Thanks
Ran across a vine in my yard that had a fruit pod type thing with seeds in it like that only much much smaller (maybe an inch and a half in length?) and more dry rather than with fruit pulp. Had no idea what it was but I guess it's something else in the dogbane family. I remember pulling the pod open and seeds like that were in the center very similarly. (After wikipedia diving... maybe Gonolobus suberosus?)
Just a dumb question: have you looked for "cuayote dulce" on youtube? There is this "Mario TV" video that shows the making of the sweet: it is something to be simmered for a long time: first they make "ash water", and let the pulp to be immersed in it for some time. In parallel, they make a dillution of brown sugar and water, and they boil that pulp in that sugar solution for a long time. There are many sweets that demands this sort of preparation.
The cutting noises even sounded like a chicken clucking gently 🐔
There is a vine that grows in the Western Australian outback that is in the same family and produces a smaller version of a similar fruit. The seeds of the young fruit are the most desirable part, they taste like peas.
Just to confuse the issue it is commonly called "Bush Banana" (Marsdenia australis) though it has no bananaesque qualities except a vague resemblance in it's shape.
@@hudefuk This last March, the most respected of the world's expert teams on asclepiad taxonomy decided that it should now be removed out of _Marsdenia_ and put back as _Leichhardtia australis._ They separated from _Marsdenia_ about 24 million years ago. It was first called _Leichhardtia_ in 1848 to commemorate the German explorer Ludwig Leichhardt whose expedition disappeared in central Australia in 1848, never to be seen again.
I think it is related to Chayota Edulis, and i couldnt find a Wikipedia Page for it.
Nope! The name and appearance is similar, but they are not related to each other.
@@WeirdExplorer ok, thank you
that fruit eerily reminds me of a bigger, but less straight, less wrinkly version of a fruit bore in my mother's garden. the skin is thick and slightly waxy and can be hard to cut if picked too ripe. the inside structure is almost the same as your fruit right down to the way the seeds are formed. the fruit grows on a vine or a shrub. I can't recall which. it had to be propped when full of fruits because the load starts to drag the branches down.
If I was going to prepare this I'd probably quickly blanch it whole to help with skin removal. I know the point was to also show the raw insides of the fruit so you didn't want to do that, but just an FYI if you have a fruit with a very firm skin that you want to quickly remove, a quick blanch in boiling water will make the skin come off easily. This works well with pomegranates too and doesn't damage the pips.
[holds fruit upside down, gestures at the clearly more chicken beak-shaped end] "If this is the tail, that makes sense..."
Milkweed is also in the Apocynaceae family (dogbane) so it makes sense they have the same seed formation and dispersal system, that may not be ripe enough by the looks of the seeds.
Bet the plant is a butterfly magnet, like milkweed
When I look at this fruit, I see the chicken shape the opposite way around. Maybe they also call it "little chicken" because of the feathery parts inside the seed.
This really sounded like you were cutting through a damp nerf football lol
Hiiii, I'm from Costa Rica that fruit grows in our gardens but like a weed.... I always thought it was poisonous. Love it when is dry and gets open... To disperse the seeds.
Huh. The shape, seeds and latex reminded me of wilkweed (asclepias genus), and sure enough, dogbane is in the same family ( Apocynaceae). You can eat milkweed pods when they are unripe, but they neef to be boiled and the water discarded too. I personally pickle them and they are yummy... reminds me of asparagus and brocolli.
Walmart sells Mexican style traditional style sweet potato candy and pumpkin candy in my south USA region. And dang is it good! That is how I discovered it. I wonder if any Mexican or Costa Rican or Hispanic style candy company also makes this and sells it in the USA? Still probably not as good as “momma’s”😅 but worth a try!
Puerto Ricans candy sweet potato, but I don't know if big brands like Goya get into this, or just leave it to mom and pop bakers. Seems like the Goya products sold here (upper Midwest, admittedly probably a low demand area) are either non-perishable or frozen.
I love that is it accommodating if you need something sweet OR savory! Excellent find!
Thanks. Some people think the world is small, and getting smaller. Nope. The world is a big place, and no one person can see it all.
The way you described this fruit as crisp, spongy and tasteless except for a mild chestnut taste made me immediately think of jicama.
Is the taste comparable to that?
"Little hen thats had its head cut off" LOL! I didnt see that until you said it. XD!
Looks like the texture of Coconut kernel. The spongey part that grows inside the nut when it shoots.
Though this fruit is in the dogbane family it’s actually much more closely related to milkweed than it is to most things that we associate as dogbanes. If you open up an unripe milkweed pod it looks incredibly similar to the inside of this fruit.
Modern taxonomy has moved the milkweeds to be a subfamily within the dogbane family. I don't like that either, because I thought the pollinia of milkweeds to be very distinctive, but supposedly if it hadn't been done, the other dogbanes would be paraphyletic. Molecular phylogeny uber alles.
I think you held it EXACTLY upside down when trying to view it as a hen 😄
And that seed be looking like a pangolin
i was not expecting this to be a large edible milkweed pod, but the surprise is pleasant
Very interesting n strange looking😁, when you was opening it I was thinking to myself it reminds me of the green casing of the horse chestnut, then you said it tastes similar lol!😂😜✌️🇬🇧
It also could be called "little hen" because when you took out the insides it kind of looks like you are defeathering a chicken. It almost reminds me of a giant milk weed pod, which are poisonous, but edible when cooked.
It's funny how it looks exactly like a milkweed pod, fruit,seeds and all.I wonder if they are related in some distant way
you gotta get a contact in brazil and try their stuff.
ive tried so many different foods during the times we went on tour there or to visit my mate's wife's family.
a contact is kinda needed given the danger in the country, but having a handler helps a ton to steer you out of bad spots.
Its high on my list of places to visit :)
@@WeirdExplorer they had this tiny round dark berry that grew on the bark of the tree. cant remember the name but it's good.
it's cheap to visit as the conversion ratio is so absurd, but the issue is getting a contact. i got lucky as a band mate ended up getting married with someone he met/worked with in rock in rio, so that facilitates things bit.
@@CreamAle Jabuticaba might be the fruit you're thinking of.
@@joshconeby yeah that was it. some good stuff but the mouth feel isn't great.
Removing seeds is fun for sure
You should do some top 10 videos for the "most worthwhile" (taste, utility etc.) fruits for the different USDA hardiness zones. It would be a good series for us growers.
Wonder if it's used like or even related to chayote (Militon Squash). Different seed type but similar in use. No matter what you cook it with, it takes in the spices and flavors of the dish, almost like a filler to help make the meal feed more without compromising the flavors of the dish because it in itself has no real discerning flavor...
the way you cut that thing open really makes me baffled that you a) got all your fingers left and b) didnt get a stab wound to the torso xD
You described the sweet like a natural baklava. Sounds interesting.
It looks like a chicken hunkered down sleeping with it's head tucked in.I see why they named it that.Guess you could make Mock Apple Pie with it.
Amazing fruit!
Hey man I’ve watched your vids for a while it’s crazy how long it’s been I’m getting older now but yea I like fruit bro
I wonder if you could use those as a sponge for like cleaning table ect. surfaces. Probably would go bad but what if it was dried first? 🤔
You should try making sweets with unripe mangoes!
The sounds it made when cutting it open may lend to its name, lol. I thought you were adding chicken sound effects at first.
I think adding salt and chilies to the sugar would be pretty great
Grapefruit and orange peels candy just as well
Thanks Jared
you are welcome
That looks like a giant milkweed pod, you can cook and eat milkweed pods when they are young. Are they similar?
The texture reminds me of fruit popcorn
Oh Jared, sometimes I worry about you and that knife!
i wonder if it would get softer/sweeter if it stayed on the tree longer to ripe, or was left to ripen off the tree, kinda like a plantain or breadfruit
Cutting or biting it sounds like peeling pomelo (rind / pith). Also got an idea that you could tell us more about texture by cutting fruits close to camera/microphone.
it looks to me like related to the milkweed tree, any chance you would have a pic of the plant?
It's like a milkweed pod, just giant and edible
Instead of cinnamon try putting cardamom ,or if possible saffron in sugar syrup.
This reminds me of a milkweed seed pod. I'm guessing these are related to milkweed because they are related to dogbane.
It looks like a giant milkweed seed pod.
Sort of reminds me of the pods that milkweed plants produce...🤔
"Let me tell you about this fruit... it's tasteless... so, anyway, let's make some cinnamon-flavoured caramel!"
That kind of reminds me of 'kondol' (wax gourd)
There are relatives of this species that are rarer than cuayote like angelpod (gonolobus suberosus) and cahuayote (gonolobus chloranthus) which looks similar to the one you have.
kind of like a vegan tofu, would be interesting to cook it up and use some sauce like teriaki to see if it absorbs that taste, cool
So. It basically is like a sprouted coconut bloom .
Seed and fruit looks the same as one from a milkweed. Just much larger.
I want to be like you when I grow up, another great video like always. I haven’t even heard of this one
So it’s basically a giant milkweed pod
🤣