Custard apple is a tropical fruit with a creamy texture and mild flavor, native to Latin America and also grown in Asia. It belongs to the Annonaceae family, along with cherimoya, sugar apples, and sour juices. It can be eaten fresh, used in fruit salads, made into sorbet, added to pies, or used in chutneys. The fruit grows on a spreading tree with large leaves and has a heart shape. It is sometimes used ornamentally in warm, humid climates. When selecting a custard apple, look for a uniformly colored swatch that yields slightly when pressed.
A custard apple is a heart-shaped tropical fruit native to Latin America. It has a creamy flesh that is remarkably similar to custard in texture and tends to be sweet and mildly flavored. Besides Latin America, the fruit is also grown in many parts of Asia, where it is eaten alongside other close relatives such as cherimoya. The fruit can be difficult to find in a grocery store because it is generally considered inferior to cherimoyas and other fruits in the Annonaceae family.
Technically, a custard, bullock or sitaphal heart is known specifically as Annona reticulata, a reference to the divided compartments that appear in many cultivars of the fruit. A cherimoya is a different species, A. Cherimoya. Other popular fruits in the Annonaceae family include A. quamosa, also known as sugar apples or sweet juices, and A. muricata, or sour juices. The fruits all look very similar, but have different and distinctive flavours, with sweet sop and cherimoya being preferred over custard apples in many cases.
Like its relatives, the fruit grows on a spreading tree with large leaves. The leaves typically protrude from the fruit, protecting it from heat. A real custard tends to be sinewy, rather than just scaly like a cherimoya, and when opened reveals several compartments of medium-sized creamy flesh and seeds. The seeds are either discarded before consumption or are expelled as the flesh is eaten.
There are an assortment of uses for this fruit. Many people eat it out of hand or mix it with fruit salads. It can also be made into a distinctive fruit sorbet, added to the filling of a pie, or made into a chutney or side dish for spicy dishes such as curries and barbecues. Squeezing lemon juice over cut fruit will help prevent browning. Like other tropical fruits, custard apples enjoy warm, humid climates and are sometimes used ornamentally in areas such as Florida.
The internal color of a custard can range from creamy white to reddish pink, depending on the cultivar. Some trees have been developed specifically with the intention of producing particularly sweet and creamy fruit with a rich texture, while wild trees tend to produce inferior fruit. When selecting one to eat, look for a uniformly colored swatch that yields slightly when pressed. The crests of the fruit may be slightly tinged with brown, but the fruit should not appear black, pulpy, or shriveled.
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