What to Do With a Perfect Avocado

I found this article very interesting because I was unaware that there is so much one can do with an avocado. I have never had an avocado before but after this article, I know exactly what to do with one. I never knew that there was a special medium where the avocado is just right. It is almost like the line of saturation: above the line is too much, below is too little. The perfect avocado is right between too hard and too soft. Who knew that someone could write an entire article and have it entered into the New York Times that is simply about avocados. My favorite part of the article was when the author said “diced” because she was referring to what happens when the avocado is not good, not how to cut it. I found this article very interesting and I look forward to using my newfound knowledge of avocados in my next meal.

I love avocados and I am always looking for a way to incorporate them into a meal. This article mentioned how hard it is to find that perfect avocado, but when you find it, there are many dishes to create and many ways to display it. I can personally say for myself that it is a challenge finding a perfectly ripe and ready to use avocado, but on those lucky days where I do find one I cant wait to prepare something tasty. I like how Melissa wrote how to add to an avocado and enhance it's flavor without taking away it's "glory". I feel that avocados have a pretty mellow flavor but they add so much to a plain dish. I also enjoyed how the article showed how avocados could be used anywhere from meals, to appetizers, to just a light dressing. There are so many great dishes to make with avocados and I can't wait to get get cooking. I enjoyed these tips and I would love to see a video!

I really love avocados in particularly fresh guacamole and chips!!!! On another note - where are the videos???

As Diana Kennedy, often called the Julia Child (or the Mick Jagger) of Mexican cooking, wrote several decades ago, slicing an avocado is quite simple. You just cut your slices all round the fruit but don't peel it until you're ready to use it. This prevents the slices from browning, avoids painting them with lemon juice or other fusses, and the skins slip right off in moments. It also gives you extra time to do something else. And as several commenters have pointed out, having a ripe avocado at hand isn't complicated either. The minute it's ripe, stash it in the fridge where it will keep very well for at least a few days.

In Texas, we eat a LOT of avocados. TIPS: 1) I buy avocados almost weekly. Buy hard and sit on counter until just soft to the touch and then store them in the refrigerator. Then they usually last about a week without spoiling. 2) If I only need half of an avocado, I mash the remaining half, pack it into a baggie, push it all to the bottom removing air pockets, lay it flat and seal removing any excess air. It will still be perfect the next day for avocado toast, as a sandwich spread, or a quick small batch of guacamole. 3) I learned years ago from a chef that avocados can be halved, pit removed, hovered under a running faucet of cool water momentarily, and then set face-down on a wet plate/tray with skin still on when prepping for a party, cover with Saran and sit them in the frig until serving time. Then it just takes a moment to remove the skin and slice for serving. This also avoids those last minute surprises we can't see sometimes until they are cut.

Favorite new quote- “You can’t please everyone, you aren’t an avocado”.

Years ago on a Martha Stewart TV show, she cooked with a Mexican woman who owned a restaurant. The woman's advice, which I follow and which is nearly foolproof, is to buy hard avocados with some green showing at the stem, and preferably with a bit of stem attached. Let them ripen on the counter until softened. If too many ripen simultaneously, refrigerate the ones you'll use soon. This has worked for me in Texas and now in New England.

Avocados are a wonderful fruit for those who live in proximity to the growers. Periodically I am suckered into purchasing them for their health benefits. Embarrassingly over the years I have spent well over $100 on the pipe dream of having an editable piece of fruit. They are either a hopeless slimy mess or so crunching they can't be pealed. I purchased a bag of 6 from a membership warehouse about a month ago. I placed some in bags with ripening bananas and apples. Out of 5 avocados I did manage to get a quarter of a fruit that was editable. I now have one left and am thinking of adding it to a decorative arrangement. I am confident it will hold up until after Labor Day. The point? Just don't buy avocado's that are not grown locally.

Maybe it's because I live in LA, but virtually every avocado I have is perfect, or nearly so. And these are your supermarket avocado fruit...not farmer's market. Buy the hard, let them ripen on the counter and eat. It's not rocket science, nor are they rare. Melissa has been living in NYC too long!

Honestly, sometimes all it needs is a dash of course sea salt.

A perfect avocado needs nothing but a spoon. The comments here make me so glad to be from California. Grew up in what was once the main house of a citrus/avocado grove.

Avocades are waiting for really no-holds-bar'd imaginative uses. the way to slice open an avocado is to score it thru to the hard seed so that it is two halves, but not yet opened. NEXT, if it's properly ripe, you twist the two halves back and forth which frees the seed from the fruit!! THEN you score the unopened pear (which they call them!) again, making it quartered. Then you can open the halves, and stab the seed with the point of yr paring knife, and lift the seed out. when you have 4 quarters, you may bisect each of them so you have eighths. Eighths are easier to peel because the skin has to do less flexing and bending and it comes off easier. hello. i've grown up peeling avocados. nothing like crying with onions, huh!?

once you have the pear in quarters, take a sharp paring knife and bisect each quarter. one assumes you're using a 'large' avocado which will peel better if you do it as melissa says, starting naturally at a small point end. eighths simply let the skin flex backwards easier that quartered skins will. i may add, if yr making guacamole a daring ingredient is just a soupcon of anchovy. And using plenty of lime, ~ Tbsp of minced sweet onion, a Tbsp of salsa verde, with a Tbsp blue cheese blended into plain live yoghurt. (I like gorgonzola for this). this is a serious salad in itself, and it will double used as a spread, on lots of greens like spinach or romaine. Here's a secret: this concoction is a killer if used as the spread on a proper high-class hamburger.

Easy for me to find a good one - I just go outside and pick one off of my trees. I do recommend the Nabal if you can find one, They really do spread like butter and the oil content is as high or higher that any other, Pinkertons are good as well but tricky to get them just right. Hass avocados are in season now and thise of us living in Santa Barbara are enjoying them in massive numbers!

Yes on the butter knife approach Toofaraway. As a long time California resident since 1956 we here would after first welcomeing them with some good even at that time California wine would also quickly advise newcomers ...whatever you do...do not toss the avocado skins down the garbage disposal.

Dice up some fried bacon and sprinkle it on there.

Brush with olive oil. Salt and pepper. Grill over med high heat about 5 minutes. Sublime. Even better if you grill over an actual fire rather than gas.

For those prone to self injury, any avocado can be sliced with a passable table knife: just make one longitudinal cut , make a second such cut to match the desired slice width, and then wiggle the knife inside the cut to help release the slice. Don't make the first slice too thin and you'll be fine. If you want thinner slices, you can always re-slice the released and peeled slices. If you do it this way, if you don't use the whole avocado, you can put it in a sandwich bag in the refrigerator, and the still-attached pit will protect the remains from browning.

Avocado margaritas. Trust me, it’s a real thing. Curra’s Grill, a restaurant in Austin that specializes in interior Mexican cuisine (as opposed to Tex-Mex), makes them. They’re fantastic. The buttery texture of the avocado cuts the acid in the lime juice, which in turn keeps the avocado bright green. I was dubious about them until I tried one.

I love a perfect avocado with salt and lime juice. Maybe spread thick on some RyKrisp. Simple, the contrast of smooth and crunch.

Haven't you ever seen an avocado knife? makes it very easy to peel. It has a rounded edge.

Trader Joe's had best avacados. Ours are 90% perfect and sliceable. It is very easy to control their ripening by keeping them in a fridge as soon as they start to ripe. We keep them for upto two weeks as we get 10 at time. This time of year they are perfect in a parsley salad.

Lucky to have local farmers market avocados most of the year. A perfectly ripened one sliced in crescents with a pinch of sea salt is enough. The supermarket ones are often pale green and watery tasting - especially the Mexican imports which have travelled further - my guess is that they are picked far too early.

Problem with avocados is that a really good one is the exception and all the not so good ones are equally expensive.

I cut my avocado in half, remove the pit and place a ball in each indent, just like a deviled egg, of grated real Parmesan cheese mixed with Swedish “Kalles” smoked roe (poor man’s caviar) or with a little yogurt. The sharp taste of the Parmesan contrasts beautifully with the creaminess of the avocado.

what to do? Since it's perfect, do as little as possible - some salt, myve some lime or lemon juice and eat it! One of life's simplest pleasures.

I use a quarter slice of a baking apple instead of banana and end up with the same result.

I put it in a paper bag with a small hard apple and staple it shut. Then I place it in a cabinet where I keep my dry ingredients. In a couple days the avocado is ready for use.

I love avocados. My uncle had an avocado tree in his back yard and I was the repentant of a brown paper bag of avocados every year when I lived near by. His father, my grandfather, was a fruit auctioneer. My Grandpa taught me how to judge fruits, some melons, and avocados for flavor and ripeness. Think of a fruit as your wonderful grandmother. Her skin is so fragile that the muscles underneath bruise easily. As we all know, a bruise is caused by broken blood vessels and blood leaking throughout the fibers of the area. Well, the same is true of fruit. So here is how to judge a ripe avocado. The nub of the stem must be present. If it is not present the interior of the fruit will be invaded by bacteria. So, check for the stem and if it is not there, don't accept the fruit. Do NOT squeeze the avocado! As the skin dries it will give way near the stem plug. Gently depress that area with your thumb. Remember helping your grandma out off the car? Be that gentle. It took me some time to figure out just how ripe I want my avocado for a salad or sandwich or guacamole to be. The first thing to dry out is going to be the skin near the stem plug. If it gives way reluctantly to gentle pressure, then it's pretty sure to be great in a salad. A little more, well cut that avocado in half, remove the seed, make the slices while the flesh is in the skin and turn it out for perfect slices. For guacamole, it will be so soft that it is possible to mash in the skin half.

How can anyone think of eating a delicious, ripe avocado without pickled herring bits on it?

Buy the rounder, heaviest and green and hard. Put on counter next to a banana until darkens and the flesh yields to gentle pressure. Perfecto most every time. Also recommend that you seek out a market that is run by Latinos as they seem to get the best - larger. They are always the richest/creamiest. Yum.

To ask this question is a first giant step for mandkind -- I am faced with it everyday and it ends up being a taco.

Chile and garlic, but "no lettuce, no tomato, no onion, nothing to distract from the avocado’s glory"??? What do you think chile and garlic do? How about just a little lime or lemon and some sea salt?

it infuriates me to see people pick up every avocado and push their thumbs into them. this is why when you get soft ones home they always have black marks on them. you hold it in your palm and lightly feel if there is any give the right thing to do is buy them hard, take them home , and wait for them to ripen always perfect if you don't leave it too long as i say, avocados wait for no man, you must wait for them lemon or lime keeps them from going black once cut my fav. use, grilled cheese sandwich w/ Avocado and extra old white cheddar. also great on top of spicy chili for a cool hit enjoy!

To keep an avocado from turning black, leave the pit in it. Works with guacamole too. In Chile they have smashed avocado on toast. My breakfast most days.

I open an avacado by cutting it in half with a sharp knife, separating by twisting the two halves. Then hit the avacado nut hard with the knife blade and twist out the nut = two perfect halves.

Ugh, I wasted a free monthly article on THIS? So, if you find yourself with a too-firm avocado, please don't despair...just wait a day until it ripens! Try this recipe for a more unorthodox treatment... Avocado Cheesecake: Four medium avocados 250g Crème cheese (room temp) 2 Cups Crème Chantilly 4 sheets gelatine (pre moistened in juice of a lime and small amount 35% cream) Sugar to taste Puree, blend, pour into mold, freeze several hours, serve. NB. I suppose a typical cheesecake crumbed base could be applied here...

Over here in the EU there’s no problem getting nice-looking avos. They are very popular here. But they are all TASTELESS!!! There’s more to avocados than their visual perfection, I assure you. The ones here are from Peru, Brazil, Africa and Israel. No Mexico. You’d think one of these countries would get the taste thing right. As it is, there’s no sense in effort if over guacamole. It’s my only complaint, the only thing I miss. Not bad, considering...

We buy very large Fla avocados every August at Robert is Here in Fla City on the way to our place in the Keys. Perfection.

According to an Australian study, ~90% of the bruising, which results in those blemished fruits in about 96 hours, occurs at the retail level. (See YouTube video entitled "Bruising in Australian Avocados," for a short summary of the Australian avocado industry detailed look into this problem.) I cringe when I see a store worker up end a box of avocados into a display bin. For I know that this unknowing and careless worker is producing the very problem we seek to avoid when purchasing an avocado. I have tried on more than one occasion to gently explain this, but many of these people, whose understanding of English may be questionable, look at me like I am nuts. I wish that all such green grocery workers would watch this video. I think this would go a long way to improving the quality of the fruit, which after all is not cheap. Also, when choosing avocados from a display bin, I look for those that have the stem remnants still attached. Even an otherwise unbruised fruit will start to go bad at the stem end as oxygen permeates through the stem attach point. You are better off getting fruit with that little button still attached.

I eat a big (about 2 pounds) salad every day. And I love it especially because I mash up an avocado, sprinkle in sea salt, and then mix everything together. Tastes incredible!

"Nothing to distract from the avocado's glory"? - What about the salsa. the garlic, etc.?

I will now add (ubiquitous) avocado to my short list on what's good about Miami. Air conditioning is number one.

Keep in mind that raw herbs and garlic in oil (or oil phase) present a risk of botulism. That dressing should be refrigerated!

The Hass avocado that most Americans consume is the "mash" avocado. For a slice, dice, salad avocado try the larger green-skinned avocado that is sometimes marketed as the "Slimcado" because it has a lower fat content. The green-skinned also has more culinary options that include milk shakes, ice cream, and desserts.

I grew up eating avocados the size of grapefruits. I am an avocado lover and expert. The author needs to buy unripened, hard avocados and ripen them at home. Put some in the fridge and take them out one by one about three to four days before needed in order to ripen. If you want to speed up the process set them next to ripe bananas. That’s how you get near perfect avocados every time. Otherwise, the ripe ones from the grocery store will almost always end up brown and inedible due to too many people feeling them and squishing them to check if they are ripe. It’s easy to get perfect slices. Just cut the avocado into quarters lengthwise and then peel off the skin. Very easy that way.

The avocado taste is subtle and delicate. Cut in half and served with a squeeze of lemon and a little salt is all I require. It is very high on my list.

Sorry, but "perfect" is relative. If you want it sliced in something, firm is great. If you want to make guacamole, you want a softer avocado.

Melissa, a couple of things: first, to get those avocado halves out of their skins, don't peel them with your fingers. Rather, slide a medium-size serving spoon between the skin and the flesh (on the wider end) and gently scoot the spoon up to the narrow end. Voilà, a neat, clean avocado half to cut into slices. Second, that 'salsa' for the drizzle is nothing at all like a salsa verde--maybe more like an Argentine chimichurri, no? Salsa verde never has parsley, or vinegar, or "piquant herbs", whatever those are, and rarely has garlic. Salsa verde is made of either raw or cooked tomate verde (those ones with the papery husks, you probably know them as tomatillos), raw or cooked chile serrano or jalapeño, a bit of onion, a little salt, and a lot of cilantro--blend all that in your blender and it's ready to use. The raw salsa verde is particularly vibrant, fresh, and wonderful. (See full recipe in the link below.) I do like the delicious idea of strewn capers! http://mexicocooks.typepad.com/mexico_cooks/2011/02/carne-de-cerdo-en-sa...