There’s nothing quite like a perfectly-ripe avocado. This irresistibly rich, yet delicate; firm, yet creamy fruit can make any ordinary dish luxurious. Yet extracting the cheery green flesh from its dark coat is always a moment of truth. Will it be just right, half rotten or half unripe?
While the duds may seem random, you actually have more control than you might realize. From selection and ripening to storing and serving, these four tips will improve your odds with avocados.
Avocado selection
Shopping for avocados is a little trickier than shopping for other fruits. For one thing, the part you’re interested in is invisible beneath a hard peel. Another thing is that ripe avocados bruise easily, so they are always shipped, and often sold, underripe.
If you’re looking to enjoy your avocado the same day, good luck. Sometimes ripe avocados are available, but more often than not, they are over-ripe, or bruised from handling. Ripe avocados should be firm with just a little give, and no soft spots. Depending on the variety, the skin may be very dark.
Usually you’ll want to buy your avocado a few days in advance. Yes, this means planning, but it is more reliable than hoping. Ideally, any firm, green avocado should ripen nicely, but I’ll pass on a little secret someone told me last week: Mexican avocados are less likely to go bad.
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Now, I haven’t tested this personally, but it does make sense if the alternatives are coming from further away. Plus, Mexico is the world’s leading avocado producer, and they really have large-scale avocado production down to a science. Of course, there are over 20 different types of avocados, and preferences vary, so this is also a personal choice issue.
Ripening avocados
Getting your avocados to the right stage of ripeness doesn’t have to be hard. It just requires patience. If you like bananas, they will give you a boost — they release a good amount of ethylene gas, which speeds up the process. You can just pile the two fruits together in the same bowl.
If you’re not a banana fan, no worries. Place your unripe avocados in a closed paper bag to trap their own emitted ethylene. Check on them after a couple of days — you don’t want to miss the short window between unripe and overripe. When the skin is dark and they have a little give, you’re good to go!
Storing Avocados
So, what if your avocados get ripe before you’re ready to use them? If your kitchen is cool, they might last another day, but much more than that and they are likely to go bad. You can actually halt the ripening process by putting them in the fridge, but then you run the risk of ruining them with cold damage – ugly darkened patches and altered texture.
To prevent this, give them a little protection from the cold. Wrap them up in a clean dish towel before setting them in the crisper drawer of your fridge. Bundling them up keeps them cozy and in perfect condition, so they will be ready for use when you are.
Avocado pit and peel removal
This last bit is about handling your avocado. It’s always a shame to see any amount of a good avocado wasted because people use bad peeling and pitting techniques. As long as your avocados are ripe and not rotten, the following method will work wonders:
- Cut your avocado in half (lengthwise).
- Give the two halves a twist in opposite directions to separate them. The pit will remain in one half.
- Take your knife and strike the pit, hard enough that the blade is embedded.
- Give the knife a little twist, and the pit will pop out.
- Cut each half in half, so you have four quarters. For larger avocados, you may want to divide it into eighths.
- Starting at the thinner end, peel off the skin of each section. Easy, peasy. Clean as can be, and no waste!
That’s all I have to say about avocados for now, but stay tuned to learn about some amazing uses for the pits and peels!
