I once regarded avocados as the world’s trickiest fruit to buy. But six months of eating them near-daily while living in Mexico enabled me to crack the code. Now I can consistently select a perfect avocado nearly every time. I want to share this hard-won knowledge with you.
Avocados will never lie to you. You will know the moment you cut one open whether it’s a winner. Here’s how to dramatically increase your odds.
Avocado Buying Advice
Perhaps you’re reading this because you’re tired of buying avocados that disappoint. Since they’re among the priciest and tastiest of foods, learning how to consistently select good avocados ranks among the most useful shopping skills you can acquire.
The Best Avocado Varieties
Some avocado varieties are tastier than others. Hass avocados are widely-regarded as the best. Any avocado that resembles a Hass will rarely disappoint, even if it’s an alternate variety. I try to buy Fuerte avocados when Hass aren’t available. Reed avocados are also excellent, but they have a short growing season. Generally, huge avocados with thin and shiny skins are terrible. At all costs avoid the slick-skinned Bacon avocado, as this variety lacks flavor and has a watery texture.
Never Purchase Ripe Avocados
The one inviolable rule of selecting avocados is to only buy them unripe. You want them greenish and rock hard. That enables you to eliminate the risk of bruising.
People tend to squeeze avocados at the market to test ripeness, and one squeeze is all it takes to cause bruising. Even a tiny bruise will spread brown rot throughout the fruit as it ripens. The riper the avocado you purchase, the more likely it has already suffered a bruise. Even partially ripe avocados bruise easily. So I urge you to only buy avocados when they are green and totally unripe.
Thoroughly unripe avocados are nearly impossible to bruise. I’ve had one roll off the kitchen table and bounce off my tile floor, and it still ripened perfectly.
Storing Avocados
After purchasing your unripe avocados, you will need to store them.
I keep my hard green avocados in a fruit bowl at room temperature. Ideally, they’ll reach perfect ripeness on different days so I won’t have too many one day and none at all the next. When I bring home several unripe avocados, I’ll therefore put one or two of them into a paper bag, with the top rolled shut, to speed ripening—avocados bagged up like this will ripen a day or two ahead of the others.
You should look at your avocados twice a day in order to catch each one at its peak. With practice, you’ll gain a knack for determining when one is ready to cut open. The trouble is there’s only a brief window of time during which each avocado has reached perfection. Any significant time that passes beyond peak ripeness is detrimental. Figure it takes about a day for a not-quite-ripe avocado to perfectly ripen, and then less than another day until it starts going downhill. Allow an avocado to go more than a day or two beyond perfect ripeness, and it’ll often develop disgusting hairlike brown fibers running through its flesh.
How to Tell When to Cut an Avocado Open
The more avocados you cut open, the better you’ll get at judging when one has reached peak ripeness. The skin will turn from green to off-black as the fruit ripens, but that by itself won’t tell you everything. The best indication is a slight give when gently squeezed. Once you get a feel for it, the softest imaginable squeeze will allow you to reliably judge ripeness.
That judgment is critical because, once you cut your avocado open, you can’t go back. If it’s unripe, you’ve ruined the fruit. I’ve cut open more than a thousand avocados, and I still sometimes get it wrong. You’ll know you’ve blown it if the flesh is still fused to the pit. Unripe avocados won’t mash properly into guacamole and they digest like you’ve eaten plastic.
No other vegan food surpasses avocados when it comes to demanding so much skill and attention to select. But it’s well worth the hassle because avocados are one of the most delicious and satisfying foods you’ll ever eat.
I’ve reached the point where I rarely order restaurant dishes that contain avocado. All too often, the cooks don’t know how to select a good avocado, and sub-par avocados detract measurably from the rest of your meal
Avocado Serving Ideas
The most famous avocado-based dish is of course guacamole. Just mash some avocados and mix in some lime juice, black pepper, salt, garlic, and perhaps some finely-diced red onions and tomatoes, and some minced cilantro.
Avocado slices go wonderfully both in salads and sandwiches. Their rich texture combines perfectly with any sort of crunchy vegetable. Sliced avocados are also the perfect garnish for just about any Mexican dish.
Finally, no tastier breakfast exists than a freshly-baked baguette sandwich made with perfectly ripe avocado slices. A good baguette paired with avocado offers one of the most marvelous flavor combinations you’ll ever experience. You won’t even need salt or pepper.
