How often do you cut an avocado and find a smooth, light green flesh inside? Here are a couple of tips on how to choose a ripe avocado and how to store it properly.
How to tell if an avocado is ripe
Like tomatoes and bananas, avocados are climacteric fruits, meaning they continue to ripen after harvest, explains Guy Crosby, science editor for America’s Test Kitchen and a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health. So even if you buy them hard, they will eventually mature.
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Crosby points to the four stages of maturity proposed by the Hass Avocado Board as a guide, explaining that it is better to feel the vegetable than to determine its maturity by color. Also, the correct way to palpate is with the palm of the hand and not with the fingers.
Immature – Bright green and hard to the touch, these firm avocados take four to five days to ripen;
Almost ripe: differ in color and slightly softer, one or two days after ripening;
Ripe – ready to eat, firm, but yield to gentle pressure, similar to a ripe peach;
Overripe: they have soft skin, possibly with deep indentations, and brown fruit that smells like pumpkin. They won’t hurt you, but they won’t be pleasant to eat.
The best way to store an avocado
You don’t need to refrigerate avocados unless you want to delay the ripening process. On the other hand, you can speed up the process by a day or two if you put them in a paper bag along with another fruit that emits ethylene, like a banana or an apple. Ethylene is a phytohormone that helps fruits and vegetables ripen.
Contrary to popular belief, keeping the pit in the avocado won’t prevent it from ripening, adds chef and culinary advisor Jason Hernandez. What you can do is cover the cut avocado with a plastic film to block the access of oxygen. You can also sprinkle the pulp with lemon or lime juice, or even vinegar, to lower the pH, which will reduce the rate at which the enzyme responsible for the browning reacts with the air.
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Can avocados be frozen?
If you want to preserve avocados for the long term, you can freeze them. You can cut them in half, peel them and remove the bone. Then, it is advisable to spread the entire surface with lemon juice and wrap them in plastic that adheres to the fruit tightly. They could be placed in a resealable bag, removing as much air as possible, and frozen.
To freeze the mashed avocado, simply put the avocado puree in a bag and seal it as tightly as possible. It is recommended not to freeze a lot of dough in the same bag, or to lay it flatter to make it easier to defrost. Thus, it only takes about 30 minutes to defrost a portion that is one centimeter thick.
In general, the most important thing is to cut off the oxygen access to the vegetable so that it does not become dark.