After 4 years... the classical spoon based method for avocado processing is obsolete, and no longer recommended by the California Avocado Commission. The new algorithms are based on this insight:
The Triptych Peel Method
This method combines a well known algorithm 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 rotate each half in opposite directions, to unlock the seed.
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.
