How can I remove the peel and pit of an avocado without the whole thing turning into mush?

Question

Making solid pieces out of a ripe avocado is a difficult business (for me, anyway). What is the best way to remove the peel and pit without ending up with a pile of green mush? I can sometimes remove the peel without too much difficulty, but that pit always gives me grief.

Answer 1

The California Avocado Commission recommends this (safe but wimpy - see below for a better way) three-step process:

1. Start with a ripe avocado and cut it lengthwise around the seed. Rotate the halves to separate.
2. Remove the seed by sliding the tip of a spoon gently underneath and lifting out. The other common seed-extraction method - striking the seed with a knife and twisting - requires some skill and is not recommended.
3. Peel the fruit by placing the cut side down and removing the skin with a knife or your fingers, starting at the small end. Or simply scoop out the avocado meat with a spoon. Be sure to sprinkle all cut surfaces with lemon or lime juice or white vinegar to prevent discoloration.

Source: California Avocado Commission

Notes:

• Another (and my favorite) way to remove the pit is by holding the half with the pit in one hand and striking the sharp edge of the knife used in step one into the pit, then twisting to remove. This is the "pro" way to do it, but takes a little practice. The video Nate referenced in the comments shows how to do it, it's not that hard.
• If you're going to be chopping the avocado up, you slice it up using the tip of the knife still in the shell, then scoop the sliced avocado meat out with a spoon.

Answer 2

A related tip to prevent browning: Put lemon juice

• On the avocado that you are serving and
• On the half that you are putting into the fridge with plastic wrap.

The vitamin C (ascorbic acid) prevents the oxidation that turns the flesh brown.

Answer 3

1. Cut the avocado in half (around the pit)
2. Jab the pit with the pointy end of a knife
3. Twist the knife to dislodge the pit, hit it on the side of your sink until the pit flies off and hits you in the head
4. Use a big spoon to scoop the flesh out of the skin of the two halves.

Answer 4

You need to have a ripe fruit. It is ripe when the neck (narrow part) just gives under a light squeeze. You can tell a ripe fruit because the peel will come off in large pieces, not sticking to the fruit and tearing or coming off easily and crumbling. Take a knife with a sharp tip and cut through just the skin as if cutting the fruit in quarters lengthwise. Then, following the previous cutting of the skin only, cut the fruit in half to the seed. Then twist the two halves apart, the seed will stay in one half. Hack the knife into the seed embedded in the half avacado and twist the seed out. Then peel the two pieces of skin off of each half, if you have a ripe avacado, each 1/4 skin will come off as one piece. Enjoy.