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.
5 Answers
The California Avocado Commission recommends this (safe but wimpy - see below for a better way) three-step process:
- Start with a ripe avocado and cut it lengthwise around the seed. Rotate the halves to separate.
- 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.
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.
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5Video of the "striking with the knife" pit-removal method, which is pretty easy: chow.com/stories/11526 Commented Jul 19, 2010 at 14:15
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Phooey on not recommending the strike-and-twist pit removal method. I'm sure that's just the Avocado Commission's lawyers afraid of getting sued by someone who doesn't know how to use a knife. The spoon pit removal method is much trickier and much more frustrating. Do it just like in the video @nate posted. It's super fast and easy.– nohatCommented Jul 20, 2010 at 18:43
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I just made homemade guacamole last night actually, and used that very method. Works every time... including the knife into the pit technique.– NickCommented Jul 20, 2010 at 21:20
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1To note, you often miss out on the green part if you scoop out with a spoon, peeling is definitely the way to go unless you are very strapped for time.– Travis JCommented Apr 12, 2018 at 18:47
After 4 years... the classical spoon based method for avocado processing is obsolete.
The Triptych Peel Method
This combines a well known method to remove the seed, with a scheme for conservatively reducing the skin tension by a series of shallow cuts along the surface. This process allows for direct removal of both seed and skin, with minimal effort and minimal wasted fruit.
- Get a ripe avocado and make sure your workspace is clear for cutting on. If there is a produce sticker, remove it. Gently cut through the skin until you find the seed.
- Rotate the avocado itself 360 degrees, firmly maintaining the knife against the seed.
- Take the avocado with both hands, and twist each half in opposite directions, to unlock one half from the seed. (Sorry for the blurry image, the camera rig got bumped during exposure)
- Gently press the knife into the seed, until you have gripped it well.
- Use the leverage of the knife to turn the seed until it unlocks. (Sometimes moving back and forth helps here.)
This concludes the standard seed removal, now for the triptych skin removal.
- Cut a small notch upwards, out of the avocado at the 1/3rd point.
- Cut another small notch upwards, out of the avocado at the 2/3rds point.
- Hold the avocado on your cutting surface so your notches are at the top, be sure your grip does not put your fingers in harms way! Now make two shallow scratches down the surface of the avocado, starting from each notch, just deep enough to split the skin.
- Take the skin by a corner and peel it off. Make sure to start on the side with no hole, to avoid the skin cracking.
- Enjoy! I have exaggerated the lines here as a visual aid, but the avocado half is still in one solid piece. Can be sliced into "rings" which are wonderfully convenient for sandwiches.
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I've reduced the size of the images to make this easier to read through. I also removed the references to the California Avocado Commission, which seemed misleading and unnecessary: your method is definitely not the same as theirs, and they've had their method on their website for at least a year and a half before you posted this.– Cascabel ♦Commented Aug 21, 2014 at 14:41
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Thanks for the cleanup! Although in my defense, I only claimed the insight is the same: Extract the impurities efficiently, instead of extracting the reagent inefficiently!– MickLHCommented Aug 22, 2014 at 16:27
- Cut the avocado in half (around the pit)
- Jab the pit with the pointy end of a knife
- 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
- Use a big spoon to scoop the flesh out of the skin of the two halves.
answered Jul 19, 2010 at 4:39
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2You can also use just the normal cutting edge of the knife in rather than the point if that appeals to you more, but the idea is the same. Commented Jul 19, 2010 at 4:40
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@Chris Thompson, I think the pointy part is probably better for not messing up the avocado, since it takes significantly less force (less surface area). Commented Jul 19, 2010 at 4:48
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3I've poked myself accidentally when using the "pointy part" method. Believe me, the "edge" method works as well, and is less likely to poke!– offby1Commented Jul 19, 2010 at 5:28
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5The tip of the knife method is a really bad idea. Avocado pits are very hard and very smooth, which translates to points sliding off. Best to use a good 8-10" French knife, hit the pit with the blade near the heel, twist, remove.– danielCommented Jul 19, 2010 at 6:01
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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.
UPDATE: The top answer on this question: Browning Avocados - What Helps? strongly suggests that my answer here is incorrect and just the propagation of a food urban legend.
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1Also, on the half you don't use, keep the seed intact! That significantly helps slow the oxidation process. Commented Feb 22, 2011 at 19:00
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Thanks for the plug! And keep your eyes open for an update, I suspect we'll see great things with ascorbic acid and sodium bisulfite. The substances are easy to acquire, but I'm picky about my guacamole! :)– Jolenealaska ♦Commented Aug 21, 2014 at 4:40
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.
:)datastored as physical matter. Thus, so I feel the terminology is appropriate. Your brain is the processor, and hands are the memory controller,computinga peeled avocado.