How to ripen an avocado at home: where to put it to make the process go faster

Avocado is a tasty and healthy fruit. It appeared on the shelves of Russian stores relatively recently, but has already gained popularity among adherents of proper nutrition. It contains many vitamins, minerals and healthy fats. In terms of nutritional properties, it is not inferior to nuts and red fish. Its taste is ideal for salads, appetizers, sauces and main courses.

Ripe avocado has oily flesh with a delicate nutty taste and rich aroma. The unripe product is hard, crunchy and similar to raw pumpkin. A fully ripened avocado quickly deteriorates and is easily wrinkled during transportation, so it ends up green on the shelves. The fruit does not always have time to reach the desired consistency in the store. What to do if the avocado is hard, and how to ripen it at home, read the article.

Signs of maturity

Ready-to-eat avocado fruit has the following characteristics:

It is quite soft; when pressed with a little force, a small dent remains on the surface of the skin.
The peel is not emerald green, but moderate or dark green.
The texture of the pulp resembles slightly frozen butter.
The characteristic aroma and taste are clearly felt.

This fruit can be eaten immediately or stored in the refrigerator until used to prepare any dish. But be sure to remember how to store avocados - long-term storage is unacceptable.

There is one more secret, knowledge of which will definitely be useful for determining the maturity of the fetus. The one that is still ripe has a yellow or green colored stalk. And under no circumstances take it with a brown stem - this is a sign of overripeness.

How to ripen a cut avocado

If an already cut avocado turns out to be unripe, it can be preserved until softened without using high temperatures. To do this, the halves are smeared with lemon juice and pressed as tightly as possible against each other. Then wrap it in cling film, leaving no free areas.

In this form, the product lies at room temperature or in the refrigerator until it reaches the desired consistency.

Important! If, when wrapping the fruit in film, you leave open areas through which oxygen enters the pulp, it will spoil.

In the microwave

Sometimes it is necessary for an avocado to ripen as quickly as possible. Accelerated methods by which you can obtain almost instant results are associated with processing at elevated temperatures.

The avocado will ripen in literally 0.5–1 minute in the microwave. Before the procedure, it is pricked in several places with a fork, placed on a plate and sent to ripen in a microwave oven. The degree of ripeness can be easily checked with a toothpick or simply by pressing with your finger: a slight dent remains - it’s time to take it out. No, that means you need to hold it for another half a minute.

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This method has two nuances:

When putting the fruit in the microwave, be sure to cover it with a paper napkin or lid to prevent it from exploding.
Before eating or slicing for cooking, the ripe fruit must be allowed to cool to room temperature.

Storage for ripening

If there is no need to soften the fruit as quickly as possible, it is better to do it gradually. In this case, it will retain maximum nutrients and acquire a pleasant taste.

There are a few simple tricks that will help speed up the ripening of the fruit a little.

How to store an avocado so that it ripens:

Place on the windowsill near the south window. Turn occasionally on different sides so that it softens evenly.
Place the fruit in the same basket with apples and bananas. Store at room temperature.
Place it near a working heating device, for example, on a newspaper under the radiator.

In the oven

Before placing the avocado in the oven, it is wrapped in aluminum foil - tightly and without gaps. The temperature should be 180–200 degrees. Five minutes - and everything is ready. Don't keep it for 10-15 minutes, as some people advise, you'll just bake it! Remove the foil after cooling to avoid burning your hands.

Accelerated methods have a significant disadvantage: after heat treatment, the fruit somewhat changes its natural taste and aroma. Not everyone is happy with this turn of events. But there is no need to be afraid. Despite this, the fruit remains quite suitable for making salads, cocktails, and guacamole.

Techniques for accelerating avocado ripening

If unripe fruits were purchased, the question arises of what and where to put the avocado so that it ripens faster. There is no need to throw away cut fruits: there are several methods to add juiciness to tough pulp. How to quickly ripen an avocado:

cut the fruit;
remove the bone;
cut the halves of the fruit into slices and place them in a plastic bag;
put in the refrigerator.

It is recommended to store the slices on the top shelves or in the vegetable compartment. After 40-48 hours the fruit will become softer. Another way:

cut the avocado into 2 halves;
remove the pit;
sprinkle the fruit with fresh lemon juice;
connect the halves together;
wrap the fruit in cling film.

Alligator pear can also be stored pureed in the refrigerator. It is impossible to subject the pulp to preliminary heat treatment (cooking, simmering in boiling water): the taste will be lost. It is necessary to remove the skin from the unripe fruit, cut the pulp into small slices and grind in a blender. The resulting mass can be placed in plastic molds and sprinkled with lemon juice. Keep in the freezer for several days.

The skin of unripe fruits contains a large number of toxins that are dangerous to the human body. Some of them absorb pulp, so eating unripe fruit can cause severe poisoning.

In the oven

Without the use of electrical appliances designed to heat food, the ripening process can take several days. The fruit will ripen much faster in the oven or oven. This method is suitable if you need to prepare a dish from an alligator pear in the near future.

Thanks to even heat, the pulp will become juicy in a few minutes.

The fruit may taste slightly different after heating in the oven. You can use them to make guacamole, smoothies or fruit salad. How to help ripen an avocado:

rinse the avocado under running water;
wipe it with a paper towel;
use a fork or skewer to make several punctures on all sides (especially at the base);
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, place the fruit on it and place in a preheated oven.

It is necessary to remove the iron sheet after 7-10 minutes. The oven should be preheated to 180-200° C. If you increase the temperature, the avocado will become dry and the flesh will acquire a bitter taste.

In the microwave

An avocado will ripen in a few minutes in the microwave. The effect is achieved thanks to electromagnetic waves that evenly heat the fruit from all sides. Many people make the mistake of choosing the wrong container for the microwave oven: using aluminum, nickel-plated and plastic utensils is strictly prohibited. A ceramic or porcelain plate is suitable for these purposes.

Avocados should be washed with warm water to remove dust and other contaminants and wiped with a napkin. Make punctures to ensure air circulation inside the fetus. You can carefully cut the fruit (strips, no more than 1 mm deep). Place the alligator pear on a plate and cover with a napkin, otherwise the avocado will burst under the influence of temperature.

Set a timer on the microwave for 25-30 seconds. If the fruit does not become soft, the procedure is repeated several times. It is not recommended to heat it in the microwave for more than 30 seconds - it is best to do several approaches. Reviews about the method are quite contradictory: many believe that after heating an avocado in the microwave, the flesh becomes bitter and dry, and most of the nutrients are destroyed.

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In the package

Unripe fruits can be stored in plastic or paper bags, either whole or sliced. The material of the container directly determines where to store avocados. Small amounts of ethylene begin to accumulate inside hermetically sealed bags - the gas accelerates ripening, so it is better to pack fruit in disposable transparent containers with a zip fastener.

Paper bags help speed up the ripening of the fruit by retaining moisture inside it. You can store any fruit with avocado: alternate alligator pear slices with banana or apple slices. The fruit slices are laid out in one layer, the bag is closed, releasing the air from it. The container should be kept in the room, avoiding direct sunlight. It is not recommended to put it in the refrigerator.

The optimal storage temperature is no more than 24° C. You need to periodically check the contents by feeling the package 2-3 times a day. If some slices have darkened, they are removed. If the fruit is “adjacent” to pieces of pineapple or banana, it will fully ripen in 3-4 days.

Using a newspaper

If you don't have a plastic bag on hand, you can wrap the avocado in newspaper. Despite the fact that printing production uses low-toxic inks, for these purposes it is preferable to use paper with black printing. Colored paint contains metal salts (iron, cobalt, aluminum, lead) that are dangerous to the body. The ink's durability is poor; tiny particles can remain on the skin of the avocado.

How to make an avocado ripe using newspaper:

rinse the fruit and dry it thoroughly;
wrap each fruit in newspaper;
put the fruit in a warm, dark place.

Cut slices should not be wrapped in newspaper. During the ripening process, a large amount of juice is released, the paper becomes wet, the ink spreads and penetrates into the fruit. The same thing happens if you wrap the fruit in newspaper immediately after washing without wiping it. The fruit ripening period is several days.

Avocados wrapped in paper should not be stored in the sun or in the refrigerator. It should be left to ripen in a well-ventilated area at room temperature. Fruits ripened in this way do not lose their taste and smell and can be eaten immediately.

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In foil

To ripen, avocados are wrapped in aluminum foil. In the oven, you can achieve softness of the fruit in a few minutes. Preparing the fruit:

rinse the avocado under running water (you can use soap);
dry the fruit by placing it on a paper towel;
make several cuts or punctures (with a skewer or fork).

The cuts should be shallow. It is best to wrap the fruits in several layers of foil - the more there are, the faster ethanol will begin to release. The oven is preheated to 200° C, the fruit is placed on an iron sheet and placed in the oven for 7-10 minutes. If the slices were wrapped in foil, the temperature and holding time are reduced (at 160-180 ° C, 5-6 minutes).

In 3-5 days, avocados wrapped in 2-3 layers of foil ripen at room temperature. In this case, it is not necessary to cut the fruit. The storage place should be dark and warm. Direct sunlight and moisture will slow down the ripening process. Avocados are also not stored in the refrigerator.

Fruits ripened in foil do not lose their juiciness. The pulp does not lose its taste, nutrients are retained in full.

In boiling water

If the avocado is unripe, and you need to add it to the dish as quickly as possible, you can use the old method - immerse the fruit in hot water. This method is considered an instant ripening method. Only green varieties of avocados can be placed in boiling water; black fruits become bitter.

The water is brought to a boil and allowed to cool slightly (to 75-80° C). Remove the skin from the fruit and cut it in half. Remove the bone with a spoon and cut the pulp into thin bars. The slices must be spread out in a thin layer on gauze folded in several layers and immersed in hot water for 2-3 minutes. It is recommended to squeeze out excess liquid. To make the fruit softer, you can add a little honey to the water.

The alligator pear slices must cool completely or the fruit will taste watery. After the excess liquid has completely drained, the gauze is unrolled, straightened and the slices are separated from each other. At room temperature, the pieces cool for 10-15 minutes, after which they can be added to the dish.

In a paper bag with bananas

Avocados are placed in a craft packaging bag along with ripe bananas (you can also put apples and pears). The latter emit ethylene vapors, which accelerate ripening. And craft paper holds ethylene well. You can use a plastic bag, but check the contents often. At a temperature of +22–24 degrees, the avocado can ripen in a couple of days.

What to do with an unripe avocado

If the purchased specimen turns out to be unripe, do not worry. You can help him acquire the necessary appearance and taste. There are several simple ways to save the product.

Warming up in the oven

Unripe fruits must be washed, wiped, pricked with a fork in several places and wrapped in food foil. The blanks are placed in an oven preheated to 200-210 °C and left for 10-12 minutes. This method allows you to quickly soften an avocado, even if you get an unripe fruit.

Ripening with boiling water

Boiling water can quickly bring green fruit to a state suitable for consumption. The avocado needs to be peeled, cut into slices and blanched in boiling water for 1-2 minutes. After this, the liquid is allowed to drain; the fruit pulp should cool. This fruit can be used to make salads and sandwich fillings.

In the microwave

Ripening avocados in the microwave is quick and easy. The finished fruit is suitable for salad. It needs to be pricked in several places with a fork and placed in the microwave for 30 seconds. After this, lightly press on the fruit and, if the avocado needs to be softened further, repeat the procedure.

Important: high temperature processing methods are effective, but they can change the aroma and taste of the product - it will become much less pronounced.

After heating, the fruits should be allowed to cool, after which they are cut into pieces.

In polyethylene

This method of ripening is used if the fruit has already been cut, but it is impossible to use it due to insufficient ripeness.

Aluminium foil

It will also help speed up the ripening of the avocado if you suddenly bought an unripe fruit. It just needs to be wrapped in foil, tightly and without open areas, and placed in a heated oven.

On the windowsill

If you have a few days left, you can ripen an avocado wrapped in foil or paper on a warm windowsill. To make the avocado soft, it should be carefully wrapped and left for several days to ripen.

Using newspaper or paper bag

Another old way to get ripe fruit. Avocados should be tightly packed in a newspaper or paper bag. In such conditions it ripens quickly, retaining its taste.

In polyethylene

It happens that inexperienced housewives cannot determine by touch whether the avocado is ripe, so they cut it. And it turns out that, alas, it is still unripe. Everything is lost? Isn't it ripe anymore? No! There is a good way to improve the situation. The cuts are sprinkled with squeezed lemon juice. Both halves, without removing the seeds, are folded “as it was” and wrapped in cling film. Then they put it on a shelf in the refrigerator and wait 2-3 days. Checking: is it ripe? If yes, remove the film and use it for its intended purpose within a day or two.

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Useful properties of avocado

This fruit with oily pulp is a storehouse of healthy vitamins and minerals. It is suitable for both underweight people and larger people who want to lose weight. Contains a lot of iron, potassium, phosphorus, selenium and other elements.

Recommended:

for problems of the gastrointestinal tract;
to strengthen the immune system;
used as an aphrodisiac and to improve potency;
Regular consumption relieves women from pain during menstruation.

When it has not reached ripeness, it tastes like pumpkin; when fully ripe, it evokes different associations in people; for some it resembles butter with the addition of nuts, for others it resembles fried chicken, for others it resembles fried zucchini.

On the windowsill

If you bought an unripe avocado and are in no hurry, of course, it is best to use the simplest, oldest and most proven method: put it on a sunny windowsill. It takes longer to mature in this way, but in the most natural way.

Be sure to check often to see if it's ripe? If the windowsill is too wet, rot may develop.

Now you know how to help an avocado ripen at home, where to put it and what material to wrap it in so that the process goes faster and without unpleasant surprises.

If you bought an unripe avocado, be sure to use one of the six methods listed. After all, an unripe fruit is not just tasteless - it contains a large amount of substances harmful to humans, and the green peel is considered poisonous and can cause food poisoning.

How to choose a fruit

The most delicious exotic is the ripened one. In a supermarket or market, the ripeness of an avocado is checked by external signs.

Peel color

The color of the avocado indicates the degree of ripeness:

pale green peel - the avocado should ripen significantly;
medium green - can ripen in the room within a day;
dark green or yellow-green is what you need;
very dark, almost black – the fruit is overripe or spoiled.

There are varieties in which the ripe avocado turns almost black or black-purple. Therefore, you need to meticulously examine the peel. There should be no cracks, dents or stains. In ripe fruit of any color it is always shiny. Even a single small dark spot appears when the fruit begins to spoil.

Fruit hardness

Unripe avocados of any variety are always hard. Therefore, ripeness is determined by lightly pressing the fruit with a finger:

hard, does not leave a dent on the surface - the fruit is hard, this is guaranteed to be substandard; under normal conditions it will ripen in a week;
slightly softens when pressed - can ripen in two to three days;
the dent remains, but then disappears - a good, ripe avocado;
is too soft, the pit does not disappear when pressed - the fruit is overripe.

This sign is of particular importance for completely black fruits. Despite this skin color, some avocado varieties have the most delicious ones. Their quality is determined solely by their hardness.

peduncle

It is easy to check the ripeness of the fruit by looking at the cutting. If there is a tail, it needs to be torn off. A green or light brown color on the skin underneath means the fruit is ripe. The black color of the peel under the tail helps you understand that an avocado has gone bad. It is better not to use such instances.

The tail of a ripe avocado comes off easily. If it holds tightly, the fruit needs to ripen.

Bone

Different varieties of exotic fruit have large or small seeds. In ripe specimens, it taps when the fruit is shaken and is easily removed from the pulp. If the seed does not knock and sits firmly, the exotic needs to ripen.

A solid shiny peel, moderate hardness when pressed and an easily torn off stem - this is what a good ripe avocado should be like.

Avocado - an exotic delicacy

The fruit has a smooth creamy texture, a pleasant aroma, goes well with other foods, is a source of energy, and is high in fatty acids, proteins and antioxidants.

Attention! The only drawback is that it is difficult to understand whether the avocado has reached the right level of ripeness or not? Can it be eaten?

And all because it most often ends up on store shelves in an unripe form, because it is transported from distant countries. Now our task is to make it suitable for consumption.

Using foil

Ripening time: 10 minutes

Wrap the avocado in foil, place it on a baking sheet in a preheated oven at 200 C, take it out after 10 minutes, remove the foil and cool the fruit.

Using a paper bag

Duration of ripening: 2 days

Place the avocado in a paper bag with an apple or tomato. So ethylene, which promotes rapid ripening of fruits, will be produced in larger quantities. Close the bag and store at a temperature of 18 to 24 C. You can wrap the avocado in newspaper and put it in a warm place for several days; this method also speeds up ripening.

Using film

Duration of ripening: several days

This method will allow you to save an already cut avocado. To prevent it from instantly darkening and spoiling, you will need lemon juice, which you need to sprinkle on the pulp, and cling film, which you will use to fix the cut parts into a single whole. Put it in the refrigerator for a few days.

Delicious guacamole, salads and toast! And in this article you will find out why everyone loves avocados so much!

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How to store the fruit

When buying exotic, you need to realize that its storage conditions depend on several factors.

Whole and cut fruits retain their condition for different times. What matters is the degree of ripeness of the fruit and where the avocados are stored.

Ripe and green

Whole ripe or unripe fruits require different storage conditions.

A container or compartment for vegetables and fruits in the refrigerator is suitable for ripe ones. The second option is a ziplock bag. After placing the fruit, the air is removed from it. The refrigerator will keep the ripe exotic fruit for five to six days. This solves the problem of how to preserve a ripe avocado until the New Year. The fruit may lie on the table for a day or two.
Unripe whole specimens are stored only at room temperature until they ripen. The refrigerator is not suitable - they will never be able to ripen there.

The fruit should not be kept open in the refrigerator: it will darken and absorb foreign odors.

With any storage method, you need to remember: the riper the exotic, the shorter its shelf life.

How long does it take for an avocado to ripen at home?

The speed of vegetable ripening depends on the method chosen and the time you have. On average, it should take at least one or two days for natural readiness to be consumed.

Creating the necessary conditions does not guarantee one hundred percent ripening. In addition, avocados must be regularly monitored during the ripening process; often an apparently ripe forgotten vegetable turns out to be hopelessly spoiled and unsuitable for use in recipes and cooking.

Buy firm avocados a week before the day of intended preparation. But there is a suitable way for emergency situations.

Secrets to softening the fetus

Don't be afraid of buying an avocado that is too hard - this is not a reason to be upset: you need to put it on the windowsill and wait a few days. But there are ways by which fruits become soft in a shorter time. We suggest you learn how to soften an avocado at home.

1 way

Heat treatment will help make the avocado soft in a few minutes. However, it is worth understanding that when exposed to temperatures, some valuable substances in its composition are destroyed. Therefore, it is better to resort to this method only in cases of extreme necessity, for example, if you want to surprise unexpected guests with an original dish.

There are 3 ways to soften an avocado using heat:

Experienced chefs categorically do not recommend using a microwave. This device will not only deprive the fruit of vitamins, but also special taste qualities, and will also make the consistency of the pulp unsuitable for preparing many dishes. The fruit will only be suitable for making smoothies.

Avocados and some other vegetables and fruits emit a special gas when ripe - ethylene.

If you do not allow this substance to spread into the air, but keep it near the fruit, you can significantly speed up the ripening process. Experienced cooks and housewives recommend resorting to such methods.

Method 2

A hard avocado can be made to ripen faster using this method:

This method will allow the light green fruit to reach maturity in 2 days.

To speed up the process, you can put a ripe banana, tomato or apple in the bag: the ethylene they release will serve as an additional factor stimulating ripening.

For good results, it is recommended to follow simple tips:

3 way

Sometimes it happens that a cut avocado only seems ripe, but near the pit its flesh is still hard. To save a mistakenly cut specimen from damage and speed up its ripening, you can use this trick:

How quickly the fruit becomes soft depends on the initial degree of ripeness: the fruit will “reach” in a few hours or a couple of days.

4 way

Another interesting method that will help light green avocados ripen in a couple of days:

Used flour should not be eaten. But it is suitable, for example, for preparing salt dough for children's crafts.

5 way

Housewives who don’t know what to do with old newspapers use them to speed up the ripening of avocados:

It is recommended to check the fruit a couple of times a day to prevent it from spoiling. It is recommended to keep the fruit in a dry place: moisture promotes rotting.

Method 5: Avocado in newspaper

Despite the fact that this is one of the oldest methods, it is still used by many housewives.

Method:

Now you know how to speed up the ripening of an avocado if you bought it unripe but want to eat it as soon as possible.

Choose the method that you like best and follow our instructions step by step to get good and fast results. published by econet.ru

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Instant fruit ripening

Very soon, a ripe fruit will appear on your table, from which you can prepare a salad, puree, use it in desserts, in Japanese cuisine, or eat it as an independent dish.

It is important to note here that if you leave the fruit in the oven, it may slightly change its taste, so you need to approach this issue carefully and be prepared for such consequences.