It’s not easy to store avocados well, but a simple technique allows you to keep them fresh for an entire month.
Although avocados are more of a winter fruit, it is possible to find some of them all year round. At the start of the year, the star avocado is the Hass variety, then from May to July, the Reed variety hits the shelves. Less present in August and September, avocados come back in force in October with the Fuerte and Bacon varieties. They are also good for your health. However, the avocado remains a fragile fruit and therefore not easy to choose or store. If it is firm, it is not yet ripe, whereas if the shell is soft, it should be eaten shortly and will taste good. When opened, the color should also be neither too light nor too dark.
How to store them properly? Amy Cross, cook and founder of The Cross Legacyshared a good storage technique, which can keep them in the refrigerator for up to a month. To begin with, it is necessary to remove all stickers on the skin. You must then wash the avocados properly to eliminate bacteria. This being said, the expert uses a very specific washing method: “cold water and distilled white vinegar”. Although this technique may be surprising, it kills all bacteria and avoids contamination of the skin, thus extending the shelf life.
In detail, the avocados must be immersed in a large bowl of cold water: 10 cups of cold water for 1/4 cup of vinegar. You should let the avocados sit for no more than two minutes, otherwise they could take on the vinegar taste. Once the time is up, simply rinse them and let them air dry on a towel.
When they are completely dry, they can then be placed in an airtight container in the refrigerator, unless they are not yet ripe in which case they can remain in a fruit bowl in the kitchen, at room temperature. In this case, it is preferable to put them with lemons, which prevent them from ripening too quickly while, conversely, bananas will cause them to ripen very quickly.
“It turns out that both help each other last longer,” says Amy Cross. It is also recommended to put lemon juice on half an avocado to keep it a little longer in the refrigerator, once it has been started.