How to store avocados at home

Delicious, incredibly oily fruit takes its rightful place in modern cuisine. The avocado pulp is rich in vitamins, fatty acids, and minerals. From America, Africa, Israel, green fruits with bumpy skin are delivered to our country unripe so that they can safely survive the transportation.

On supermarket shelves you can find:

• ripe, aromatic avocado that is immediately ready to eat;
• hard fruit, it can still lie down for some time in certain conditions.

Lovers of green lumpy fruits know how important the degree of ripening is, the taste of the dish largely depends on it.

Knowing how to store an avocado at home, you can get fruits of varying degrees of ripeness. Do not put too dense product in the refrigerator, low temperature negatively affects the ripening process. Moderately soft and aromatic fruits will become at home, in the closet or closet.

How to choose the right avocado

A fruit that tastes more like a vegetable is chosen for a number of reasons. It is quite difficult to visually determine the degree of maturity. In shape, the fruit of the evergreen tree Perseus of the laurel family resembles a pear. There are up to 400 varieties of avocados, it is false to be guided by color when choosing fruits.

Ripe fruit signs:

• the peel is punctured when pressed, then restored;
• the stalk is well removed, a greenish flesh is visible (if the inside of the fruit is brownish, it is overripe);
• spots are a sign of damage by bacteria, such an avocado will not lie for a long time;
• the kernel of a ripe bone taps on the shell.

Gourmets and sous-chefs of elite restaurants by their appearance determine where the fruits are brought from. Florida produces rounded, light-colored fruits. They are great for rolls, salads. The California variety Pinkerton is prized for its butteriness, has a pleasant aroma, and is used raw for hamburgers and sandwiches.

How to preserve a whole, ripe avocado

The dark skin naturally keeps the flesh fresh. So that the fruit does not overripe, does not become too soft, immediately after the purchase, the product is put into the refrigerator, in the compartment for vegetables and fruits. The recommended shelf life is 3 to five days. In the best case, 7 days when setting the minimum temperature regime.

It is not necessary to pack the fruit for 2 or 3 days. When you want the fruit to retain its firmness for longer, you should wrap it in a soft cloth, newspaper, or put in a paper bag. Housewives try to protect ripe avocados from contact with other fruits so that the fruit does not rot and does not overripe in the refrigerator during storage.

Important! It has been noticed that bright green fruits rarely reach marketable ripeness in the refrigerator. Dark spots appear on the peel, the fruit begins to deteriorate faster than ripening.

Storing slightly unripe avocados

An unripe, hard fruit can ripen like tomatoes at home. It does not deteriorate up to 2 weeks. The fruit is placed in a dark cabinet or closet away from the sun. Alligator pears are better stored at a stable temperature within the range of 18 ... 22 ° С. To ripen faster, apples, bananas or pears, which produce ethylene, are added to a paper bag to the avocado.

Check ripeness with your finger. If a dent remains when pressed, the fruit has matured. You can use the product for its intended purpose, prepare salads or sauces.

How to store a cut avocado

When half of the fruit remains after cooking, you should think about its safety. There are several ways to preserve a cut avocado. It should be noted that the product should be removed for storage immediately after cutting. It won't take long for this.

Important! It is noticed that the half is stored better in the refrigerator if the bone is left. Less area of ​​contact with air, tissue structure is not disturbed.

How the fruit cut is processed in order to preserve the decent appearance of the half of the product:

• With onions, the peeled onion is cut into large slices, placed on the bottom of the container. A half should be put on them with a cut up, the container is tightly closed. Vapors with phytoncides prevent pulp oxidation.
• 2. After acid treatment. Smear the cut surface with lemon or orange juice, lime, apple cider or lemon vinegar. In this form, you can store a half in a bag for 2 or 3 days.
• 3. In cling film. Part of the fruit is wrapped in plastic wrap immediately after cutting. With proper packaging, when tightness is observed, a ripe avocado will retain a decent look for a couple of days. The flesh will not darken or become oily.

Note! You shouldn't cut and clean the product beforehand. The pulp immediately darkens, begins to oxidize in air, and an oily coating appears.

Can avocados be frozen

Sometimes fruits are hopelessly overripe, and the refrigerator is no longer able to save them. How else to store a cut avocado for a long time - by freezing. It is worth considering that after defrosting, ripe pulp becomes soft. It is better to immediately make mashed potatoes from the fruit, peel the fruit first, remove the stone.

It is convenient to place the finished mass in plastic bags or containers. The puree is prepared by taking out the contents of the alligator pear with a spoon. Then it is broken in a blender to a homogeneous gruel, this is a blank for smoothies or sauces. Some housewives add lemon juice to the ground pulp at the rate of 1 tbsp to preserve the natural color. l. for 1 liter of cooked mass.

Important! When placing mashed potatoes in containers, it is necessary to provide for an empty space. When frozen, the volume of the mass increases to 10%.

If the fruit is firm, you can freeze the halves in the freezer. Each, after cutting the fruit, is immediately wrapped in cling film, placed in bags with a fastener. The bone is removed, the peel can be left. The recommended shelf life for frozen avocados is 6 months. Some housewives keep mashed potatoes for a year, until the next harvest.

For reference. After storage, freeze is thawed gradually. First, from the freezer, a bag or container is placed for a day in the vegetable compartment of the refrigerator.

What can you cook with avocado

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

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

Note! Avocados are eaten only with pulp. The stone and peel are capable of accumulating heavy metals and other harmful substances.

The alligator pear has long ceased to be exotic. To peel a ripe fruit, cuts are made to the bone from different sides. When twisted, the halves disintegrate, revealing the pulp, which can be removed with a spoon or cut into slices.

VIDEO: How to properly store avocados in the refrigerator.