I love avocados. Absolutely love them. However, I'm finding that now that I'm eating smaller portions, I only want to eat about half of one at a time. The problem is that I live alone and I'm cooking for one, so I have to store the other half. And even if I try to use it the next day, I always find that it's brown and gross by the time I come back to it, and I end up having to throw it away.
Has anyone found a secret for keeping half an avocado from going bad after a day or two?
souvenirdarling, do you store them in tupperware or wrap them in plastic or what? I've heard that you have to keep the air away from them because that's what makes them brown. Is that right?
Funny I came across this. I was just reading up on avacados. Here are some tips I came across...
If you decide to incorporate more avocados into your diet, look for them at your local farmer's market or grocery store. If they are hard, place them in a paper sack for a day or two until they ripen and dent when gently squeezed, then use them right away. The green flesh will quickly turn an unappealing shade of brown when exposed to air. To prevent this, place plastic wrap as tightly against the avocado flesh as possible, or sprinkle the cut fruit with a little lemon juice and refrigerate.
i think its oxygen in the air that causes it to turn brown similar to what happens to apples when you leave them out. i know that if you sprinkle lemon juice on apples, it helps to prevent the oxidation so i can see how it can also work with avacado.
but i agree with souvenirdarling, just cut the avacado in half and leave the pit in. less of it gets exposed to air.. or you can just cut off the brown?
I do pretty much everything mentioned. cut lengthwise/leave the pit in/squeeze lemon juice over all over it/ put it in a ziploc bag and suck the air out of the bag. Keeps it pretty good for a couple days, it will still oxidize eventually...just make sure you get a good vacuum seal on it. I have kids so we have straws in the house...they come in handy for this...no need for the expensive food sealer. But you don't even really need the straws either...you just get a better seal around the avocado flesh. I figure you pay a lot of money for an avocado (up here esp. off season) it's worth the extra tlc to keep it fresh and not waste the flesh.
I adore them and in Southern California they are cheap, plentiful, and of good quality. I have kept them up to a week after cutting into, just in a plastic zip bag with the air squeezed out. The very outer surface will go a bit brown but it is no rotten - in a salad still tastes great. One trick is to cut the avocado from the top (where the stem was attached). That way as you cut off what you need you have not exposed as much surface area which is what goes brown.
Keeping Avocado Fresh
I doubted it until I tried it!
