Ripening avocados

[cwyc]

Is there a way of speeding up the ripening process of an avocado. I am making sushi tomorrow and my avocado is still too firm for consumption. Any suggestions?

[Alex]

At room temp, in a closed paper bag, with an apple to keep it company.

Edited January 28, 2004 by Alex (log)

[curlywurlyfi]

What he said, but with a ripe banana (it's the ethylene that does it, apparently).

Fi

[cwyc]

Has anyone tried sticking it in a pile of uncooked rice? Something about the heat from the rice..?

[fifi]

Never heard about the rice thing. What heat?

[Jaymes]

Actually, I don't think it matters what other sort of fruit you stick into the paper bag with the avocados. I often have peaches or pears or something else I'm ripening, and they all work just as well.

[chezlamere]

over ripe narly apples work best. Just make sure you take the apple out if you have several avocado's, or they will ripen too quick.

[Susan in FL]

Good question, glad you asked and glad to have the replies!

[Pickles]

Most fruits give off ethylene gas. When I worked in the floral industry, the rule was "keep your lunch bags outta the cooler!!" The ethylene ripens fruits like bananas, but KILLS flowers.

http://www.aboutproduce.com/faq/ethylene.html

[weinoo]

I know I recently read it - I just don't remember where, and a quick search of my current food mags left me still wondering. Anyway, what I read was that, contrary to popular opinion, the best way to ripen an avocado was in the fridge. The cold temperature allows the avocado to ripen evenly, as opposed to ripening on the counter, where you get air pockets and uneven ripening. (From the sound of this, it must've been CI, but I can't find the reference).

So, a week ago I bought a bag of organic Mexican Haas avos (4 in a bag) and stuck them in the fridge. Today, they're still hard as a rock and look exactly like they looked when I put them in there.

What gives?

[Dave the Cook]

You got some bad advice. Cold actually damages unripe avocados. Depending on the species, if you take them out of the refrigerator now, they'll likely go straight to rotting.

[Shel_B]

Maybe this will help:

How to Store and Ripen Avocados

[weinoo]

Does anyone have the May, 2009 issue of CI and can look at this article?

[Charcuterer]

I just read it. It is very clear that you should have ripe avocados in 4 days that keep about 5 days. I haven't tried that trick though. I can e-mail you the article if you PM me.

[weinoo]

Thanks, Charcuterer! From the Cook's Illustrated article, May, 2009:

Avocados ripened in the refrigerator, whether in a bag or out in the open, took around four days to soften, but did so evenly. Stored in the fridge, they lasted a full five days before starting to show signs of over-ripening.

Exactly what I did with my $6 bag of avocados. Down the drain.

[Alcuin]

You got some bad advice. Cold actually damages unripe avocados. Depending on the species, if you take them out of the refrigerator now, they'll likely go straight to rotting.

Interesting. This might explain the time I bought an advocado that was rock hard and seemed to remain rock hard forever. When I finally decided to cut into it to see what was going on, it was rotten. I bought it from an Asian grocer not famed for their handling of produce (get there the right day though and you can hit the jackpot). I wonder if it was stored cold, and that ruined it.

Definitely interested in more info on this.

[Dave the Cook]

Definitely interested in more info on this.

McGee, On Food and Cooking (second edition), p 277:

Chilling injury may become apparent during storage, or only after the produce is brought back to room temperature . . . avocados darken and fail to soften further . . .

p 337:

If these warm-climate fruits are refrigerated while unripe, their cellular machinery is damaged and they will never ripen; once ripe, however, they can be refrigerated for several days and retain their quality.

From the first edition, p 202-203:

The avocado is also unique among fruits in its inability to metabolize anaerobically. If deprived of oxygen (in a tightly twisted plastic bag for example), the ripening process is halted, and when oxygen is restored, the fruit will spoil. The avocado is highly susceptible to chilling injury, and if stored at refrigerator temperatures for very long it will become discolored and develop off-flavors.

[andiesenji]

Some excellent advice here.

The California Avocado Commission (CAC) does not recommend microwaving.

Notes here.

In my experience I have found that the apple in paper bag works well and I also toss in a banana PEEL if available as that tends to lessen the ripening time by a day.

I've done the microwave thing to SOFTEN an avocado but it really doesn't ripen it but microwaving for two 15 second sessions,(without piercing it) turning the avocado over between sessions, and then bagging it with an apple or banana has produced an acceptable result within 24-36 hours, starting with a rock-hard avocado.

Edited March 5, 2012 by andiesenji (log)

[rotuts]

Wonderful topic

then the Acvocats are on sale, i get unblemished ones that are the same firmness, or several of two firmness.

i leave them out on the counter for a day or two until the have a sl give. then i refrigerate in the crisper and take them out the AM of use. this has not failed me. the refrig adds 3 + days to their effective life time longer than that even 'counter ripe' they have bad blackness near the pit.

they do not ripen after taking out of the refrig as indicated.

its also important to take a few secs and look those avocats over before you buy: blemished ones will get you black cores no matter what!

[Alcuin]

Definitely interested in more info on this.

McGee, On Food and Cooking (second edition), p 277:

Chilling injury may become apparent during storage, or only after the produce is brought back to room temperature . . . avocados darken and fail to soften further . . .

p 337:

If these warm-climate fruits are refrigerated while unripe, their cellular machinery is damaged and they will never ripen; once ripe, however, they can be refrigerated for several days and retain their quality.

From the first edition, p 202-203:

The avocado is also unique among fruits in its inability to metabolize anaerobically. If deprived of oxygen (in a tightly twisted plastic bag for example), the ripening process is halted, and when oxygen is restored, the fruit will spoil. The avocado is highly susceptible to chilling injury, and if stored at refrigerator temperatures for very long it will become discolored and develop off-flavors.

Thanks for the info. I'll have to get the book out and read further. This describes very closely what happened with my advocado and I've wondering about it ever since.

[weinoo]

So Cook's Illustrated should've read McGee, right?

Of course, the fruit is never ripe when picked because it doesn't ripen on the tree. And I'm sure they get pretty damn cold on the trip to NYC from Mexico via truck.

[Dave the Cook]

The CI crowd can be condescending, smug, unnecessarily circuitous in their thinking (including many a trip through the land of the Straw Man), and downright boring at times, but they're rarely out-and-out wrong. So I can't account for their results.

Damage to avocados seems to have a threshold of 45°F/7°C. Trucks and trains headed to New York get cold, I'm sure, but probably not that cold -- ruining a semi-trailer full of expensive fruit seems like a quick way to go out of business, so there must be a way to mitigate temperature. Or maybe they come in the hold of a boat.

[Fred12fred]

Interesting to read the McGee quote above because that is exactly what I have learned to do over the years...buy a bag of avocados, let them ripen on the counter, then throw them in the fridge if I'm not going to eat them right away.

I find that they can sit in the fridge for at least a week before I notice any appreciable degredation.

It's great to do this when they have the 3 for $1 weekly sales and you want to stock up.

[heidih]

Interesting to read the McGee quote above because that is exactly what I have learned to do over the years...buy a bag of avocados, let them ripen on the counter, then throw them in the fridge if I'm not going to eat them right away.

I find that they can sit in the fridge for at least a week before I notice any appreciable degredation.

It's great to do this when they have the 3 for $1 weekly sales and you want to stock up.

Yes. I live in "avocado land" and also have a bearing tree. I buy them rock hard and stick them in the fruit bowl which usually just has citrus, maybe a mango, and a few tomatoes. As soon as they are ripe they go into the vegetable drawer of the fridge. I prefer to buy them so they ripen sequentially and spend little time in the fridge, but when they are large ones in bags at less than a $1 each, I go for the bag. It is very rare for me to have to bin one.

[SylviaLovegren]

Interesting to read the McGee quote above because that is exactly what I have learned to do over the years...buy a bag of avocados, let them ripen on the counter, then throw them in the fridge if I'm not going to eat them right away.

I find that they can sit in the fridge for at least a week before I notice any appreciable degredation.

It's great to do this when they have the 3 for $1 weekly sales and you want to stock up.

Yes. My MIL taught me this (and me, living all those years in So. Cal!) and it works wonderfully well. If you put them in the fridge before they're ripe they just sit like rocks, but if you wait until they're just about ripe, they hold wonderfully. And great at sale time, as you say!