(Food)What are papayas supposed to smell/taste like?

[Togath]

So I got a papaya...
...and it smells of cheddar cheese, cold bacon, and sweaty feet.
And, unfortunately, seems to taste of the first and third.
Is this... normal? Or is this papaya really really off in some way?

[Razade]

Fruit shouldn't taste like meat. It's gone off.

[Togath]

Didn't taste of meat...
Just sorta tasted of the smell of cheese and foot sweat together.
The skin did look a little odd. Kinda wrinkled, mostly green with tiny speckles of yellow and brown bruised looking spots.

[Gnomvid]

Papaya is supposed to taste like Papaya that is to say Sweet and fruity it's hard to describe exactly, but a ripe papaya should also be yellow/orange in color with left over green spots here and there.
It it was grown in Florida it may have suffered from Papaya ringspot virus which apparently affects the taste negatively.

[Razade]

So I got a papaya...
...and it smells of cheddar cheese, cold bacon, and sweaty feet.

Didn't taste of meat...

You wrote it man.

[5a Violista]

Note: Togath said it smells like bacon, not that it tastes like bacon.

So I got a papaya...
...and it smells of cheddar cheese, cold bacon, and sweaty feet.
And, unfortunately, seems to taste of the first and third.
Is this... normal? Or is this papaya really really off in some way?

That actually sounds like the first papaya I had eaten, as well. I've had lots of different papayas, so I believe I can answer this...

It sounds like the papaya you're eating is slightly overripe. The more overripe it is, the more off it smells and tastes. Also, in my experience (and the experience of people I've given papaya to) it is, in fact, an acquired taste: it seems like for the first couple your mind tries to associate it with "similar" tastes and smells which is frequently feet for some reason. However, the more you eat the more it has the unique taste of a fruit called "papaya" instead of old feet and sweaty cheese.

Also, I've had a variety of different kinds of papaya. They each have a slightly different taste: some are more fruitlike and less feetlike. Some are more bitter and some are sweeter. Some taste somewhat like sugarfree gum.

What I'm trying to say is: it's normal for the first one you eat to taste weird. It does get better the more you eat, though. You'll stop associating it with these weird tastes and smells as soon as you get used to it. Also, overripe ones tend to taste off so try to get them as close to "ripe" as you can.

It's pretty good in a smoothie with other fruit and such, or just scooping it out with a spoon and sugar (or a small amount of salt) on top after chilling it. I heard a little bit of lemon juice also is good on it. There's also ways to cook it, I'm sure, but I don't know them.

Edit:
Also, it's possible that the more you eat, the better you are at picking out the ones that aren't overripe. Papaya grow mold easily, so overripe ones frequently have small patches of mold on them.

[Knaight]

They're kind of mango like, unless you're deliberately using under ripe papaya for something (which does happen; it's a key ingredient in papaya salad, which is generally delicious).

[cobaltstarfire]

My first papaya definitely did not smell like feet, cheese, or bacon, nor did it taste of any combination of the three. I don't think this is some sort of weird "acquired taste" thing going on, it sounds more like the first few papayas some posters have had, were simply bad. Since it smells of feet and cheese I'd imagine you got one with a mold problem, or which is overripe, or both.

Papaya are not usually terribly strong in flavor or smell in my experience, though I also tend to prefer a lot of my fruit slightly green...

[Togath]

Asking around other places, this definitely sounds like there was something funky about it...
It had signs usually pointing to overripeness definitely not being ripe in colour.
By immediate thought before I opened it was "wow, this doesn't look right and" "some mind of my mind is screaming that it's gone off somehow", which sorta supports that theory. The fact that it had a lot of bruising and had been sitting in a bag with bananas for a week and had not changed colour at all supports that too.

[Gravitron5000]

One thing of note: Papayas are weird in that some people seem to taste them quite differently than others.

To me, they taste like vomit. I've tried them a few times thinking that I might have had one that was off, and others have tasted the same papaya and mentioned that there is nothing wrong with them, but for me, they are a solid NOPE! Do not want!

I am not alone in this. I have found others. I should start a support group. I know I am traumatized by this.

[Eldan]

That happens with quite a lot of plants, by the way. It's genetic, some people have taste receptors others don't. One example is coriander. My mother says coriander leaves taste like liquid dishwashing soap. The rest of the family loves them. I know Durian is another, which by some accounts has a dozen different tastes. Papaya may well be on that list too.

[Murk]

That happens with quite a lot of plants, by the way. It's genetic, some people have taste receptors others don't. One example is coriander. My mother says coriander leaves taste like liquid dishwashing soap. The rest of the family loves them. I know Durian is another, which by some accounts has a dozen different tastes. Papaya may well be on that list too.

The interesting thing is that you can still learn to like it without the taste receptors. I completely agree with the "coriander = soap" taste, but now that I've eaten it enough, I actually enjoy my curries tasting like soap.
With papaya (and to a lesser extent, even mango) it is the same. The musty, sweaty taste never disappeared (indeed, even with ones that others found delicious), but after a while I started appreciating eating fruit that tastes like feet. At least it's something else, right?

[Togath]

So I discovered I have some papaya tea...
...it very much does not smell like feet... not does it taste of feet. And then I remembered, I'd had dried papaya. And it, like, also didn't taste of feet.
Maybe it has something to do with the type I got?(small, nobbly, never turned even 50% yellow, and was wrinkly and bruised) Or maybe it was just overripe. Or underripe and going bad.

[Rativohra]

Just sorta tasted of the smell of cheese and foot sweat together.

[Ajustusdaniel]

Sacrificial innocence, I've always supposed.

[Cygnia]

Green papaya?

[Peelee]

The Mod on the Silver Mountain: I recommend against finding out what a four-year-old papaya tastes like.