cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/46892723

It does and doesn't.
The outer layer of the durian, yeah that's gone.
Dense biomass presents a unique scenario though.
Where steel is homogeneous, and conducts heat very well, cells are "hollow" and contain a lot of carbon.
Water vaporizes. Proteins vaporize. Carbon burns off.
Slightly deeper: water vaporizes. But there's no oxygen here. The burning biomass outside is consuming it and dumping carbon dioxide as it goes.
What happens when carbon heats without oxygen? It purifies. Down to pure carbon.
3,630C to melt it away.
What's more, it's not solid carbon. All that water and protein is long gone, but now it's empty space. Insulation.
It's impressive how much biomass blocks heat.

Time matters. Long enough, the outer layers start to burn away. Oxygen moves deeper, carbon burns, not melts. That layer burns off. Oxygen moves deeper.
You didn't need 3000C. But you need time and air flow.
If you're trying to see who between a mass of steel or an equal biomass gives up first, the steel will fail every time.

also, Leidenfrost effect

Is that…durian charcoal?

Has anyone here eaten durian? Is it more tolerable than the stories say?

Smells bad, tastes good!

Just extrapolating, I’m guessing starchy and umami?

I've only had it once or twice. It kind of resembles a mango and a banana mixed in flavor. Maybe like 75% mango and 25% banana. I was quite fond of it, but unfortunately the stickiness afterwards was quite unpleasant and never came off no matter how much I washed.

I'm bad at describing flavours but like a sweet/vanilla/pear custard that reeks a bit in the good/bad way stinky tofu smells?

This makes it sound like a durian smoothie would be great, but also I don't think I could handle the smell.

Jet fuel can’t melt Durian fruit.

Smells like sewerage (which is why they're banned in most hotels, planes, transit and enclosed spaces where they're common), tastes like a fancy dessert. It's a complex flavour that's honestly unique, and they don't all taste the same - various sub-varieties exist.

To me the most consistent flavour of them is a very creamy mild honeydew-melon and vanilla flavour, with a dash of banana. Very pleasantly floral and generally quite sweet.

Given that description you'd think I'd love them but I actually can't stand the smell and look (bro the fruit flesh looks like yellow turds), I've only ever eaten them under duress haha.

An organic heat shield for spacecraft then.

I also would throw in a bit of sweet onion flavour or something like that

This is like, the fifteenth time I’ve seen that word in the last two days, after learning it two days ago. Baader–Meinhof.

I recall reading somewhere that early generation ablative heat shields were made of cork, so that phrase is not as outlandish as it might sound to you, at least to me.

It didn't taste as bad as it smelled, but I really wasn't a fan of it's fatty texture. I'll pass next time.

so you're saying Artemis III will have a durian heat shield

This is actually one of the principles that is causing building codes to start accommodating load bearing timber in tall buildings. Even though wood is combustible, wood beams that are thick enough can withstand fire for long periods of time. They're still working out what the different tests and standards should be, but some jurisdictions have approved timber skyscrapers.

Old stuff and let's say sticky stuff smells horrid, but actually now when you eat it and it tastes good the smell is less horrible since you know it tastes good. It's a nicer association afterwards

After processing into whatever other forms, the stinkiness usually lessens a lot

Source: loves durians my whole life

The folk tip is to run water over the shell and wash your hands

It works surprisingly

Source: someone that lives and loves durians.

I grow up with durian, kinda depend on how well your tastebud like to be challenged, because it's not stink like smelly drain(that award goes to stinky tofu). Once you overcome the smell and the mushy texture it's full of unique flavour depend on the cultivar. It's probably the most unique fruit coming from south east asia, and SEA have a tons of unique fruits.

I’m familiar with this experience, between cheese and cumin.

Why they're banned is not about how bad it smells directly, but about how long the smell lasts in the room even after you take it out, and how much worse it becomes before it disappears.

Are you natives?

I am, and I concluded it (obviously) cultural. We didn't as familiar with different varieties of cheese, so the stinky cheese (don't remember the name) have absolutely foul smell to me.

On the other hand, most never even questioned that durian smell is just that, durian and nothing to overcome. It doesn't register as something nasty to the point where someone who actually didn't like it usually seen as the weird one ( also cuz it's considered expensive fruit)

And to answer OP question, it tasted creamy as in dairy to me but I don't like dairy products besides yogurt so I maybe wrong.

I'm native, but i also have nephews and nieces that dislike the smell at first but once tasted it are fine with it, so assuming their perspective aligned with people who doesn't grow up with it.

Another example i can give is smelly tofu, i don't grow up with it, never had it, never know how it smell, but when i'm in college i moved to city with people selling it, i hated the smell whenever i went to that particular night market because it smell like sewage, but once i tasted it, it's like a whole new perspective. I now crave it once in a while, and will recognise the smell as something distinct.

On the other end, i actually hate petai/stink bean despite growing up in a family that had it very often back then. I just can't take the smell. So i feels like, unlike cilantro, it's something you have to overcome both the smell and texture, and if you don't like it you don't like it.

Ooh, nice. It's rare to see another SEA-an around this part.

aligned with people who doesn't grow up with it.

Oh, yeah I agree. What I'm trying to say is that someone with an entirely different set of culture (foods) already has a predetermined set of palate of what kind of taste to expect, so even if they power through the initial smell they just more likely to dislike it cuz it resemble nothing they usually consume.

Another example i can give is smelly tofu

I would take a guess that we're probably neighbours country.
I haven't taste smelly tofu in particular, but I can imagine the smell. The by-products of the normal one would make anyone gag, this one probably just straight up has the sewage aroma because of the aging and what not.

petai/stink

The bathroom situation is what makes me hate it. I wouldn't refuse if offered but never choose it myself.

So i feels like, unlike cilantro

Funny, I can't stand cilantro. I don't think I even has the "soapy" taste gene. It just taste like random grass to me and everytime I accidentally taste it I thought "this ain't human food" lol. The brain is fascinating, huh.