Horrible? Terrible? The perfect bait to get ride of rodents?
I have to admit… They look yummy as can be:
Some papers I read said to wait for 3 light frosts. I did that. I began with 3 cups of physalis and 1 cup of sugar. The taste was horrible, put a second, the taste was still horrible, added half a cup more and the taste was still horrible:
Everything ended up in the garbage bin.
Hasta la vista, babies!
Marc
It is really really bad! 
@Luisport : I did not mentioned it in the previous message but I ate one physalis straight from the pod. The taste was mediocre but I did not choke on it and even thought that cooked with sugar added they could be OK. Noooooooo
Sounds sort of like my experience with the infamous ‘Garden Huckleberry’ (Solanum melanocerasum)… even after following instructions to boil in water with baking soda to leach out solanine and other alkaloids, and addition of lemon juice and grape juice for flavor, and lots and lots of sugar… the finished jam still had this really unsettling metallic aftertaste…
That’s odd. The version I grew had a distinct lack of flavor! Well, it had a decent base flavor, but it was hard to tell due to the lack of any acid or sugar to speak of. Certainly nothing metallic, though.
What do fresh out of hand physalis alkekengii taste like?
Totally missed that, thanks!
The ‘Chinese Lantern’ flower pod and fruit is different from the ‘Ground Cherry’ which is edible and tastes bland but fine. I would never eat the Chinese lantern fruit. It is related to the Ground Cherry.
