How To Quickly Ripen Avocados

Using science, find out how to make a hard, unripe avocado into a newly ripened one!

Where are my avocado lovers? I eat one a day 99.9% of the time. To me that soft, buttery flesh is so perfect. Some days I’ll smash it and use it on a sandwich, some days I’ll coat it in panko and air fry it and there are some days where I’ll just slice it up, sprinkle on sea salt and eat it as-is.

For me, I buy mine in bulked bags as it’s cheaper and more manageable.  However, finding that perfect bag is hard. You want one, maybe two ready to eat and the other note quite ripe so by day 3 another is ready.  Yeah, it doesn’t happen that way.  So either you’re forced to buy the bag that all of them are ripe or none are ripe.  I tend to go for the bag where none of them are ripe but then I’m stuck waiting for them to ripen.  And sadly they ripen all at once.

So on Tuesday’s Tip with The Kitchen Whisperer, I’m sharing my favorite way to quickly ripen an avocado. But first, let’s talk about how to pick avocados. Now this applies more to the single or 2 avocado purchases as I have never had a bag of all perfect ones.

Chef’s Tip on Picking Perfect Avocados

• Look for ripe but not over-ripe ones. Ripe avocados will have a skin color that is dark green to almost black
• You want avocados that yield slightly when pressed but are not mushy. Also when gently pressed it will not leave an indent
• The skin texture of the avocado should be bumpy
• When you slice into the perfect avocado it’ll look like this (below – well, okay it’ll have a pit in it first but I took it out)

Overnight Ripen

1. Go to the store and buy not ripe avocados, a paper bag, and either an apple or a banana.
2. When you get home place one of the not-ripe avocados in the bag with either the apple or banana.
3. Fold the bag shut tightly so no light gets in. You want to ‘trap’ them in there.  Do not use a plastic bag. You want them to breathe.
4. Place the bag off to the side and let it go for 24 hours.
5. The next day open up the bag and the avocado should be ripe and ready to go.

So why does this work? Apples and bananas give off ethylene which is a natural food ripening agent. By ‘trapping’ the avocado in the bag with the fruit you’re speeding up the ripening process of the avocado.

The “Oven” Method

Hey, I get it, even I can’t wait 24 hours for a fantastic avocado. And like many of you, I searched for a faster method. Hundreds of sites promise that you can quickly ripen an avocado in 10 minutes in the oven.

Being an Engineer as well, this seemed too good to be true. So I tested it out. It “kind of” works but ONLY if you have an almost ripe avocado.

But working with a rock-hard avocado – don’t try it. Please. You’ll just end up wasting your time and end up with a soft and slimy avocado whose interior flesh is still rock hard.

Seriously, just plan ahead or use my paper bag method.

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