How to store avocados: 3 ways

Avocado. Overseas fruit, which is no longer exotic on our tables. Sold everywhere, used in the kitchen by many housewives. They get it a little immature, and then the question arises: how to store an avocado correctly so that it does not deteriorate until the X-day? We read and compare options.

In the freezer

The longest shelf life of avocados is in the freezer. It is up to 6 months. But you can’t just cram the fruit into a container. It must be prepared. You will need:

• ripe avocado
• fork or blender
• half lime or lemon
• food container or airtight bag with zip fastener

Procedure. Avocados should be peeled and a stone removed. Next, the pulp must be crushed in mashed potatoes. If the fruit is ripe, then this is done easily with a regular table fork. When storing a large number of fruits, it makes sense to use a blender. Because of one avocado, the unit can not be dirty.

The next step is to put the mashed potatoes in a container or bag. Now it remains only to sprinkle the surface of the mass with lemon or lime juice, close it tightly and put it in the freezer.

For the preparation of salad in the future, it is not necessary to puree the pulp. It will be enough to remove the peel, discard the bone. Now you need to cut the avocado into pieces of the required size, sprinkle with the same lemon juice. Now the mass is ready for freezing and long-term storage. After thawing, the taste will be less saturated, and the aroma will be slightly less strong. But they will not disappear at all and you can fully enjoy the creamy and nutty tenderness of overseas fruit.

Tip. After defrosting, mashed avocado should be eaten as quickly as possible. In the open air, it oxidizes and acquires an unappetizing dirty color. Oxygen does not affect taste and texture. By the way, re-mashed avocados do not freeze.

In a refrigerator

Most sources do not recommend storing avocados in the refrigerator. This is partly correct. Just do not specify that you can not store an unripe avocado. Because the cold prevents the fetus from ripening normally. But the fully ripened fruit feels great on the shelf of the kitchen unit. Moreover, there are several options to save an already cut avocado.

1. With onion. Oddly enough, but the fruit lasts the longest in onion fumes. It does not darken, does not become watery. You just need to chop a large onion at the bottom of the container, and put half an avocado on top. In a tightly closed container, the fruit is stored for up to 7 days without signs of spoilage.
2. With lemon juice. For almost 6 days, you can store the cut avocado if you grease its surface with freshly squeezed lemon juice. Naturally, in a closed container.
3. With olive oil. The avocado pulp will not darken, and the fruit itself will not deteriorate for 5 days, if you carefully lubricate the slice with good olive oil. Do not forget about the container with the lid.
4. In a vacuum bag. There are special packages for storing perishable foods. They create a semblance of a vacuum. In such an environment, avocados can be stored for up to 4 days. Unfortunately, it is impossible to physically completely remove oxygen from such a package, so the flesh will gradually darken.
5. In water. Some simply immerse half the fruit in cold water and leave it in the refrigerator. But already by 2 days such a fruit is getting dark. By the way, he remarkably absorbs this very water, which has a very negative effect on taste. The flesh becomes a common smear, and even an unpleasant brown hue.

As you can see, the cut avocado with onions is stored the longest. By the way, over time, the flesh does not lose its taste, aroma and density.And does not start to smell like a raw bulb.

When is the time to take an avocado from the refrigerator? As soon as the first darkish streaks appeared on the pulp and small droplets of juice on the cut. This is a signal - you need to eat an avocado immediately, or send it to a salad. Because it is fully ripe and even has already begun to mature. If this is not done, after a couple of days half of the fetus may be inedible, lethargic and loose.

Tip. To keep the cut avocado longer and stay fresh, do not pull the stone out of the remaining half.

Also in the refrigerator compartment the whole avocado is very well preserved. For this, only ripe fruits are selected. All you need is that paper bag. It is in this package that the avocado feels great in the compartment for vegetables and fruits. But plastic containers and plastic bags are not very suitable for storing a whole avocado in the refrigerator. The fruit can simply “suffocate” and deteriorate in a matter of hours.

In the closet

If you decide to store avocados on a shelf or in a kitchen cabinet, then wrap the fruit in wrapping or kraft paper. In such a wrapper, a ripe whole avocado will lie for almost a week. But you should pay attention to temperature. It should not exceed + 22 ° C. Otherwise, the shelf life is reduced to 3 days. After all, he has such a delicate pulp, which quickly deteriorates if the fruit is fully ripe.

An unripe avocado is stored a little longer. At the indicated temperature - about 10 days. We recommend periodically checking the avocado for maturity, and store the ripened fruits separately. Otherwise, it is likely that the entire contents of the paper bag will go to the bin.

Useful Tips

1. For long-term storage, get bright green fruits. They lie the longest. But fruits with a dark green tint should be eaten as soon as possible. This is an indicator of the full ripeness of avocados.
2. Even a whole fruit with an intact skin has the ability to quickly evaporate internal moisture. To prevent the fetus from wilting prematurely when stored without a refrigerator, try to limit the access of sunlight to it. In the dark and in suitable temperature conditions, the alligator pear is perfectly stored for up to 13 days.
3. Do not store avocados with any other fruits. The fact is that most of them emit ethylene, which significantly accelerates the maturation of avocados. As a result, the fetus can over-ripen and begin to rot even in the refrigerator.
4. Always store avocado halves with the cut straight up. This will avoid the loss of delicious juice, and prevent the fruit from withering too early.
5. On the basis of mashed avocado pulp, a delicious thick sauce is prepared. It can also be stored in the freezer for up to 5 months. Only certainly in an airtight container or a special bag for freezing. Otherwise, the sauce will be saturated with the smells of the freezer and become smelly and inedible.
6. Some sources recommend that sliced ​​avocados are simply folded in halves to each other, wrap tightly with cling film and put in the refrigerator. We don’t recommend doing so, because a whole avocado will live much longer than a cut one. If for some reason you had to do this, then grease the slices with lemon juice or even apple cider vinegar. No, the shelf life from this will not increase, but then at least the flesh will not darken.

Now you know all the ways to store avocados correctly. And just choose the method to protect the fruit from premature spoilage. Better not to store it, but eat right away. Because this fruit is very tasty.

Video: select, clean and store avocados