How to store avocados so that they ripen and do not spoil, cut, whole, ripe, peeled, in the refrigerator or without it

The shelf life of avocados without additional manipulation is 1 week. You can even store cut avocados, but in this case you need to be smart. The fruit is rich in iron and other trace elements, so if its integrity has been compromised, the pulp will oxidize very quickly. If the “alligator pear” (also called avocado fruit) turns black after cutting, it can no longer be used as food.

For all lovers of salads, smoothies and other culinary dishes made from avocados, we present a rating of the most effective life hacks - ways to increase the shelf life of the cut fruit.

Practical tips for storing avocados

Avocados have a number of subtleties in terms of proper storage. In stores they often sell it unripe, and in order to eat the delicacy, you need to wait a few more days. It's easy to miss the moment when the avocado is ripe and begins to spoil.

There are a few simple tips that will help you enjoy the taste and beneficial properties of the fruit and keep it fresh for as long as possible:

Suitable temperature: it is best to store fruits at a temperature from +2 to +12;
High humidity: the optimal moisture content in the air for storage is from 80 to 95%;
Temperature stability: take the avocado out of the refrigerator and put it back less often, otherwise it will spoil faster;
Vertical storage: the optimal position of the stored fruit is upright, with the stalk up;
Do not remove the pit;
Sliced avocados can be stored for a maximum of 2 days; if you want longer, do not disturb its integrity;
Isolation from oxygen: wrap the fruit in film or paper, so it will oxidize less.

What can you cook with avocado?

According to Brazilians, the best avocado snack is sliced and drizzled with ponzu or soy sauce. The pulp tastes like raw zucchini or ripe pumpkin. The pulp of the ripe fruit is creamy and sweetish.

Storing avocados at home is easy, as is cooking with them.

A cream is prepared from the fruit and added to pasta and cereal side dishes. The pulp goes well with vegetables, meat, seafood, other ingredients, and bread. Sandwiches with avocado puree are popular. Avocado is used in many cuisines around the world; salads, hot and cold appetizers, rolls, soups and main courses are prepared with it.

After defrosting, use the puree as quickly as possible.

Note! Only the pulp of avocados is eaten. The seed and peel are capable of accumulating heavy metals and other harmful substances.

Avocados cannot be re-frozen.
Alligator pear has long ceased to be exotic. To peel a ripe fruit, cuts are made to the pit from different sides. When turned, the halves fall apart and the pulp becomes visible, which can be removed with a spoon or cut into slices.

It is best to eat avocado fresh when the fruit still contains the maximum amount of vitamins and minerals.

Storing unripe fruit

Unripe avocado fruits have a light or deep green skin. When purchasing them in a store, make sure that the surface is not damaged, that they are dense and smooth to the touch.

Do not put unripe fruit in the refrigerator! There it will not ripen, but it will spoil. The best conditions for such an avocado are room temperature about +20 degrees and a paper bag.

If you need to get ripe fruit faster, a banana or an apple will be good neighbors for it. These fruits emit ethylene, and such a symbiosis will benefit the unripe avocado. Under this condition, it will be edible within 2-3 days!

How to properly store avocados

Ripe avocados should be stored in a temperature range from 4 to 6 degrees Celsius, and unripe avocados - from 18 to 24 degrees. The degree of ripeness of a fruit can be determined by its color and structure. So, if the “alligator pear” is ripe, then after pressing there will be a small dimple on its skin.

Other signs of ripeness/immaturity of an avocado are as follows:

The unripe fruit is bright green and has a tough peel. The avocado feels hard to the touch. The taste of the fruit is reminiscent of unripe pumpkin. In order to separate the stone from the pulp, you need to apply a lot of force.
The ripe fruit has a dark green color. The exception to the rule is Hass avocados. Fully ripe fruit turns black.
A ripe avocado has yellow-green flesh and the pit is easily separated.
If the fruit is ripe, the skin can be easily removed even with your hands.

Important: fruits with a bright green color are suitable for storage. Dark avocados need to be eaten as quickly as possible, otherwise they will become unusable.

Preserving ripe avocados

If the avocado is ripe, but you are not going to eat it right now, pack the fruit in a plastic or paper bag and put it in the refrigerator. There is no need to wash it before!

Such measures will protect the fruit from contact with others in a specially designated container, and it does not need an influx of oxygen. This way the shelf life will be much longer, up to 4 days!

But it can deteriorate even earlier. Therefore, it is best to check the fruit daily for softness. If the skin bends too easily when pressed, this is a sign of imminent damage! There is no point in storing avocado for too long: every day it contains less and less vitamins, and the taste gets worse.

When it's time to eat your avocado, remove it from the refrigerator and chop it immediately. This makes it much easier to do, because after it warms up, it will lose its density and be excessively soft.

Action plan

You need to take a fully ripe avocado, half a lemon, a fork, and a food container.

Peel the ripe fruit and remove the pit; make a puree from the remaining pulp. Well-ripe fruit can be easily mashed with a fork.

If the avocado is frozen for preparing a salad in the future, there is no need to puree it, just peel it and cut it into slices of the desired size. Next, sprinkle with lemon juice and place in a container.

Of course, after thawing, the taste will be less bright than that of fresh fruit.

Cut fruit: how to preserve it longer

If you were unable to eat the whole fruit at once, the issue of proper storage in cut form becomes acute.

There are several clever ways to help preserve cut avocados for up to 3 days.

Firstly, do not pick out the pit if you are storing half of the fruit. It is recommended to put it in a paper bag and place it in the refrigerator. Film or a plastic bag will no longer work!
Secondly, you can sprinkle the cut with lemon juice. Its acid will help avoid the development of pathogenic microflora in the fruit pulp.
Thirdly, you can place half an avocado on a bed of onions. This method is good if you later use onions in preparing a dish with avocado. After all, there is a high probability that the pulp will absorb the smell.
Fourthly, vegetable oil is a good way to preserve the freshness of the cut. It needs to be applied like lemon juice, then the fruit will not darken and will lose its valuable properties more slowly.
Fifthly, cold water can be an assistant in storage. If you fill a container with it and then put the avocado in it, it will cool further and stay fresh longer. True, this method does not have the best effect on the appearance: the fruit darkens.

Is the avocado already cut into pieces? Then you should not store it for more than 2 days. You can simply put the slices in a vacuum bag and place them in the refrigerator. But remember: you need to eat them as quickly as possible!

Useful tips

You often find unripe avocados in stores, which raises the question of how to ripen them at home. For this task, there are different ways to quickly ripen:

Place the foil-wrapped fruit in the oven. Set the oven to 200 degrees and hold for 10 minutes.
Pierce the fruit, cover with foil and microwave for 30 seconds. The resulting product is suitable as an additive to dishes.
Wrap the avocado in newspaper and place it in a warm place. Check the condition of the fetus every couple of days. If the peel turns black, the fruit is spoiled.

It is believed that pears and apples help speed up the ripening process. Due to the release of ethylene gas, avocados ripen faster in this “company”.

Not every fruit is suitable for long-term storage. To understand whether a fruit is worth the effort, you need to carefully examine it. Pay attention to the following details:

ripe fruit has soft, juicy pulp and elastic skin. To determine the degree of ripeness, press the peel with your finger.
ripe fruit is colored brown-green. If the avocado has darkened or turned black, this is a sign that it will soon rot.
the presence of dents on the surface of the peel is not a reason for embarrassment. This external sign is natural for ripe fruits.

The avocado pit is dangerous for the human body (as is the peel). After you cut the fruit, get rid of it. There is no need to throw away the bone. It can be ground into powder and added to homemade scrubs or facial maxis.

Long-term storage in the freezer

Avocados can be stored frozen for up to a year. It is unlikely that you should freeze the whole fruit. The best option is to cut it into slices or puree it. Moreover, in pureed form it will be stored for as long as possible.

If you cut the fruit into pieces, you can expect to store it in the freezer for no longer than 4 months.

But making such a preparation is much simpler: cut the fruit into pieces and pour it into a bag or container and freeze it.

How to properly prepare avocado puree for freezing:

Ripe avocado must be washed, peeled and cut into small pieces;
Grind with a blender or pass through a meat grinder;
Add a little lemon juice;
Place the puree in a container of a suitable size (remember, there should be plenty of containers, because when frozen, the product will increase in volume);
Place the container in the freezer.

Before use, you need to remove the mass from freezing gradually. First, put it in the refrigerator a day or two before preparing the dish so that defrosting is smooth.

How to tell if a product has gone bad

Alligator pears should not be eaten if they have begun to spoil. First signs: soft areas, darkening of the skin, unpleasant odor. If dark or rotten areas are visible on the cut, the product should not be used for food, as the bacteria that have settled can cause severe poisoning. Some housewives cut off the damaged part and use the rest in cooking. This should not be done, because toxins can be found throughout the fruit.

Typical avocado storage mistakes

It happens that after buying fresh fruit, after a few days you notice that it has gone bad. Why is this happening? You may have violated simple storage rules.

You can't take out the bone! This significantly affects the shelf life.
You cannot store ripe fruit outside of the refrigerator! At room temperature, ripe fruit will last no longer than 3 days.
Cannot be stored with other fruits! Such a neighborhood will not benefit the freshness of the avocado.

As much as avocados are loved by many for their benefits and taste, they are also difficult to store. The rare properties of the fruit are worth paying a little attention to, and strict adherence to the simple rules described by us will help you fully enjoy the taste and beneficial properties of avocado.

In a refrigerator

How to store an avocado in the refrigerator after cutting? Here the fruit will lie, without losing its appetizing appearance, for up to 5-6 days. Most options are related to the fruit's reaction to interaction with other products.

With lemon

The juice of this citrus prevents the oxidation of the pulp and changes in its color. Therefore, before placing the fruit in the refrigerator, place thin slices of fresh lemon on the cuts, trying to cover the entire surface. For a better fit, cover the top with polyethylene or parchment.

With onion

This method has proven to be the most effective: avocados look completely fresh for several days and taste just as good as freshly cut ones.

Reference! Onions release sulfur compounds that act as an excellent natural preservative.

The fruit is placed in the refrigerator along with large pieces of juicy peeled onion. It is best to place in an airtight food container with a well-fitting lid.

With olive oil

For this method you will need a container that does not allow air to pass through. Half the fruit is brushed with fresh olive oil with a pastry brush. It is important that the oily film covers the entire cut, leaving no areas open to air. The fruit is placed in the refrigerator, and the lid of the container is carefully closed.

The absence of a seed negatively affects the quality of storage. That is why it is advisable to use the pitted half first for food - this way the second part has a better chance of staying fresh for several days.

Photo of proper avocado storage

Let me sum it up

If you need the fruit to become softer, place it in a cardboard bag with flour for a day.
You should not eat unripe fruit: it can cause poisoning of the body with toxic substances. So it's better not to experiment.
If the color of the peel after storage changes to dark green or even black, there is nothing to worry about. Such specimens are suitable for consumption.

Now you know how to preserve avocados at home so that they do not spoil. I think this information will help you enjoy healthy fruits for a long time. Enjoy your health and don't get sick!