Avocado- the fruit is very tasty, but only if choose it correctly.
First of all, you need to pay attention to the degree of maturity of the fetus. An unripe avocado has an unpleasant bitter taste, its flesh is hard. A ripe, ripe avocado has a pleasantly sweet taste and a soft, buttery, almost creamy texture. The pulp of a particularly ripe fruit can even be spread on sandwiches like butter. How to determine the ripeness of an avocado and what other signs will help you choose the right one delicious fruit?
Determining whether an avocado is ripe is very simple. You need to lightly press your fingers on the peel. If the fruit bends slightly under the fingers and then the dent quickly smoothes out, that is, the fruit is quite elastic, then this is the avocado you should choose. Another sign of a ripe avocado is the sound of the pit when shaking the fruit. Hold the avocado to your ear and shake it - if the stone knocks, then the avocado is ripe.
An unripe avocado will be firm to the touch and will not dent when pressed. His bone does not knock. However, such an avocado can also be bought, but it will have to be kept at home for several days. room temperature for it to mature.
Too soft avocado, on which the dents are not smoothed out, is not worth taking. Such an avocado is overripe, and is more likely to be rotten inside.
Also pay attention to appearance avocado, which can tell you a lot about the properties of the fruit.
Avocados can be green or brownish in color. The brownish-skinned avocado (pictured left) is a California variety. When ripe, it is very soft and is good for making avocado soup, smoothies, smoothies, or just spread on sandwiches. And if you cut such an avocado in half and take out the bone, you can scoop it out of the peel with a spoon and eat it right.
Ripe green-skinned avocados have firmer flesh and are suitable for making rolls and salads.
Pictured below are two avocados. different varieties- Florida (1) and Pinkerton (2). Click on photo to enlarge.
Please note that one of them (avocado 1) has a skin that looks thin and almost smooth, with barely noticeable pimples. The second avocado (in the photo at number 2) has a darker peel, all in large pimples. It is better to choose an avocado like number 2.
The peel of a number 2 avocado is dense and thick, it is easy to pick it up with a fingernail and completely peel the fruit without affecting the pulp.
On the contrary, an avocado of this type as number 1 can only be peeled with a knife, while inevitably removing the pulp layer along with the peel.
In addition, avocado 1 has a larger pit than avocado 2. In relation to the pulp, the pit occupies a very significant place in avocado 1, so it is more profitable to choose avocado 2 - for the same price you will get more pulp and less pit in relation to each other.
Tropical fruit captivates users with its novelty. Often, after a purchase, consumers think about what to do with it, how to eat it. But even before that, at the time of shopping, they ask themselves how to choose a ripe avocado in the store? There are parameters by which the suitability of a product is determined. We will cover them in our materials so that there is not a single question left, and you do not have to be disappointed in the purchase.
What does an avocado look like
Avocado is an exotic fruit, fruit, has a green peel with tubercles. Color varies in any direction: from light to dark. Inside is a large bone surrounded by oily pulp. Only the pulp is eaten; the pit cannot be eaten. The seed contains a large number of toxic substances. They buy the fruit for making salads, first courses, mashed potatoes, sandwich mixes and other recipes. This suggests that it is not sweet, which is why it is often called a vegetable.
Ripeness parameters
Before buying, you need to know everything about the proposed product. Variety, country of importer, degree of maturity. If you can’t figure it out on your own, ask sales assistants, although the variety, date of import, country of importation are indicated on the price tag. It is important to know the fact that the benefits of avocados directly depend on ripeness.
By grade
The following varieties are imported to Russia for sale.
- Florida. Fruits with dense pulp, thin bright green skin. Due to the fact that the insides are quite elastic, it is difficult to determine the ripeness when pressed. On sale on the Russian counter, they fall from November to May. Even if you feel resilient, do not worry. This avocado is excellent ingredient for salads.
- California. The outer coloration is more brown. Ripeness is determined easily, just press it with your finger or shake it, you will hear the sound of the stone inside. It is used for pastes, purees due to the excellent softness of the pulp. On sale all year round.
- Pinkerton. Its thick rind often makes it difficult to determine ripeness. On it are small pimples than on the first. The outer color is almost blackish. The pit is small, so shaking won't give you ripeness results.
Important! If it was not possible to determine the ripeness by belonging to the variety, do not despair. Let it be unripe than overripe, as at home at room temperature the desired condition is quickly achieved.
According to external characteristics
Choosing the right exotic is not difficult, just follow simple recommendations:
- Do an inspection first. Look at the peel, it should not have cracks, dents, diaper rash, rot. The darker the color, the riper the fruit. This indicator will not exact definition ripeness, as it is influenced by belonging to the variety.
- In the store, you are allowed to touch the fruit with your hands. If you click on it then ripe avocado- this is when the dent restores its former forms. The hole remained indented - the fruit is overripe; not formed at all - immature. In any case, all forms are applicable. For unripe, it is necessary to wait 3-5 days, for overripe it is preferable to use immediately after purchase.
- You can determine the maturity by the bone. If you shake an avocado, the ripe fruit will make a thud. This means that the seed of the fruit is ripe and easily separated inside the valves. This did not happen, the avocado is not ripe.
In any case, the choice has been made, and you, hoping for your success, purchase the goods.
Determination of ripeness at home
After the avocado is brought home, continue checking. Cut off the stem. In place of the cut, the trace looks like:
- too wet, brownish - overripe;
- dry, yellow or green - unripe;
- moist, bright green - ripe and tasty.
During cooking various recipes, according to the consistency of the pulp, its condition is also determined. If it is tender, oily, easily smeared on bread, the right fruit has come across.
Important! Ripe salad is not very suitable, as its pulp, in best case, will look like a dressing, not a separate ingredient. In this case, you should choose a slightly unripe avocado for salad, as it is easy to cut into any portioned pieces.
The choice is made, you have a good, ripe fruit. If you do not use it immediately, the pulp becomes dark in color, to avoid this, spread the slice with lemon, put it away for storage.
What to do if the avocado is not ripe? Advice experienced housewives: wrap the fruit in a newspaper, put an apple, bananas next to it. The maturation process will be accelerated twice.
These simple tips help you choose the right avocado so that it is tasty, juicy, tender. These indicators depend on the degree of maturation. Keep them in mind when you make a purchase, not when you bring the product home. After all, the fruit may be too soft and quickly deteriorate. And about how it is eaten, we will talk in another article.
Exotic fruit avocado attracts with its unusual taste and usefulness. When choosing it, it is very easy to make a mistake and buy not quite the fruit that you would like. When the avocado has got the right ripeness, you can get great pleasure from it.
In order not to waste money and not be disappointed, you should know the nuances that will help you make the right choice.
Health benefits of avocado and its uses
Avocados contain many vitamins and minerals. Together, they have a positive effect on the human body.
Avocado contains polyunsaturated fatty acid that help improve memory, increase its level of concentration, reduce the risk of heart disease.
Thanks to potassium, which is part of the fruit, stress resistance increases and water-salt metabolism is normalized. Copper and iron save from anemia.
Avocados have the valuable ability to reduce arterial pressure. Therefore, the fruit is useful for those who are prone to hypertension.
The size of an avocado is from 5 to 10 centimeters. The mass of the fruit is in the region of 200 grams, although there are fruits up to a kilogram.
Avocados can take many forms:
- pear-shaped;
- oval;
- spherical.
Regardless of this, ripe fruits make excellent puree soups, smoothies and cocktails. The pulp of the fruit can be spread on bread and enjoy a pleasant creamy taste. Avocados are added to salads and used to make rolls.
Avocado Selection Secrets
When choosing an avocado, you need to consider it from all sides. There should be no damage, cracks or points on the peel. Spots indicate that the fruit is overripe, and possibly rotten inside.
Pay attention to the level of ripeness of the avocado. If the fruit is not fully ripe, then it has a hard pulp, and the taste is bitter and cloying.
Ripe fruit is sweet and tasty. Avocado flesh is oily and tender. It can be easily crushed with a fork. This is the fruit you need to buy.
Avocados are selected based on the following criteria:
- skin color;
- softness;
- cutting.
Depending on the degree of maturation, the fruit has different skin colors:
- light green. This color indicates that the avocado is not yet ripe. You can bring it to a ripe state on the windowsill. But it will take at least five days for the fruit to become soft and pliable.
- moderate green. If an avocado has this color, then it has two days left until it is fully ripe.
- Intense green. It is enough for the fruit to lie down for about a day to turn into a ripe fruit.
- Dark green with a brownish tint. The fruit can and should be eaten immediately after purchase.
By touching the fruit and lightly pressing the peel with your fingers, you can determine the degree of its maturity with almost 100 percent probability. If the avocado feels like it buckled slightly when pressed, and then the dent quickly smoothed out, then the fruit should be great. It is soft but not friable. The elasticity of the skin suggests that the fruit is not overripe.
cutting- another distinguishing feature that allows you to make a choice. In a soft avocado, it can be light yellow or dark brown. It is better to choose a fruit with a light stalk, since its dark color indicates that the avocado has already overripe and has lost some of its usefulness and taste.
Inside the fruit is a stone. If, when shaking the fruit, its knock is heard, then you can safely buy it - it is ripe and juicy.
When an avocado is bought for the future, it is more correct to choose a heavy and hard fruit.
What to do with an unripe avocado
The most delicious fruits of any fruit are ripe. This fully applies to avocados.
Hard and unripe fruits taste like an unripe pear or pumpkin, and you do not need to eat them right away. But when it was not possible to find ripe avocados, do not be upset.
In salads, desserts, rolls or just whole - the delicate taste of avocado will be appropriate in any of these cases. In addition to gastronomic pleasure, this fruit will provide you with vitamins and minerals. But only if it is ripe and of high quality! tropical fruit has ceased to be exotic for us. But even admirers do not always know how to choose the right avocado. In this article, we will consider the criteria for a quality fruit, so as not to make a mistake and not pay in vain.
What to look for when choosing?
It is much easier to meet an overripe or green avocado in our stores than to buy a quality fruit. This is due to the conditions and duration of transportation: they can deteriorate, not ripen, and stale. But a knowledgeable buyer is not easy to fool. There are a number of criteria that will help determine the correct fetus. So how to choose good avocado and not guess?
Nutritional value per 100 grams:
Color and Density
The first thing that catches your eye is the color. Avocados vary in color from light green to black. It can be good both in the first case and in the second. The main condition is a combination of density and color. The first rule of purchase: you can successfully choose a ripe avocado in a store or in the market only if you feel it. In supermarkets, hardly anyone will prevent you from doing this. But when shopping on the market, you should expect zealous attacks from sellers, some of them will not even allow you to touch the product. Buying "without looking" is definitely not worth it.
Picking up an avocado, pay attention to the combination of color and hardness. If you plan to eat it on the day of purchase, it should be moderately soft and dark green. And light and hard without loss of quality will last up to 5 days. In the table you can clearly see how to choose a delicious avocado.
| Color | Density | Quality |
| light green | Solid | Unripe fruit. It can be left to ripen, for example on a windowsill, for 5 days. But on the day of purchase, you should not eat it, it will taste very tart. |
| moderate green | Solid | Such a product needs to lie down for ripening for 3 days. It is softer in taste, but still with astringency. |
| deep green | Soft | It is better to hold the avocado for another day so that it becomes softer in texture and taste. |
| dark green | Solid | Rare variety "California" or "Kaas". It costs more than others, but tastes the same. To use, you need to leave for 3-5 days until it becomes softer. |
| dark green | Very soft | It's just an overripe avocado. You should not take it, as it has lost useful substances and may be rotten. |
By remembering these criteria, you will know exactly how to choose a ripe and delicious avocado for any culinary purpose. For sweet salads and sauces, you can take very soft ones, most importantly - without beaten and dark areas on the skin. Fruit of medium ripeness is suitable for rolls. Choosing an avocado for a salad is a little more difficult, it should be soft and dark green so as not to interrupt the taste of other ingredients with astringency.
Interesting fact: you can quickly and accurately determine the ripeness by listening to the fruit. Shake it and listen: if the stone knocks inside, the avocado is ripe.
Skin
Separate dark or whitish spots on the peel are a reason to put aside the "chosen one". The surface of the fruit should be uniform, without dents. But the skin will also tell us what is inside. We are more interested in this factor in terms of economy. If you meet an avocado with a smooth shiny surface, you will give half the cost for a bone. Inside it has a large core, and the skin is removed only with a knife along with part of the pulp.
The wrinkled surface is what you need to choose the right avocado. Such a shell is easily removed even without a knife and does not catch the edible part. His bone is much smaller. In both cases, you will pay the same amount, but avocados with “pimples” will have more pulp. Ideally, if a slight pressure on the surface leaves a dent, which slowly disappears. This is a sign of a ready-to-eat fruit.
cutting
Another factor that gives out a low-quality avocado is the stalk. He will tell you if the fruit is rotten inside. If there is a stem left on the fruit, remove it. It easily falls off if you pick it up with your finger. A dent will remain in place of the stem, we are interested in its color. The stalk should be light brown or light yellow. An unripe avocado will have a light green tint. Such a purchase can be postponed for a while for ripening, but it will not be possible to enjoy it right away. If the stalk of a hard avocado is dark brown or black, the fruit is rotten inside. The soft fruit with a brownish or yellow stem is suitable for same-day use.
it simple rules how to choose an avocado in a store or market. They will help both the beginner and the “regular” of vegetable counters. The matter will remain with culinary delights: sweet and meat salads, rolls, guacamole…
Source
Wikipedia: Avocado
Do you love avocados the way you should love them? By the way, is an avocado a he or it? Berry, fruit or vegetable? How and with what it is eaten, how to recognize a ripe fruit and what to do with it next? All these questions quite recently swept through the minds of our compatriots, who first saw an exotic product on the counter. Today, most of us, especially those who have made healthy eating one of life's priorities, they know firsthand how to handle avocados, and most importantly - why. And they are right - these funny-looking exotic fruits really are a storehouse of nutrients for human body. And yet, before buying, no, no, and they will doubt which copy to choose.
The ripeness of avocados is still a mystery to many who have recently become acquainted with useful properties and features of the use of avocados. Therefore, for them and for everyone else who is not indifferent to their diet, we will tell you how to accurately determine the ripeness of an avocado.
Avocado: appearance and features of ripening. Signs of a ripe avocado
In order to immediately dispel doubts, we admit: an avocado is not a vegetable or a berry, but a fruit. Because of its unsweetened taste, it is indeed often referred to as a vegetable, and you will most likely find it on sale in the vegetable section. However, the avocado is a fruit, which is clearly evidenced by the design of the fruit: one large bone around the fleshy shell. It is unlikely that the European colonialists, who once tasted avocados for the first time in South American lands, thought about its botanical affiliation, but intuitively called the fruit "alligator pear", which emphasizes its relationship with fruit crops. As for taste, it favors the use of avocados in mains and savory dishes rather than as a dessert, as is typical for fruits. In general, ripe avocados taste quite neutral, which makes them a good component of soups, salads, and many snacks. Turning to the seller, you can safely ask him to give you the selected avocado, since in Russian this is a neuter word, and it does not decline and looks the same in singular and plural.
Avocado fruits ripen on tall trees cultivated in both the Americas, Africa and Israel. On the territory of Europe, avocados are sold all year round, and their ripeness practically does not depend on the season. In addition, there are about 400 varieties of avocados, each of which differs slightly in the size and shape of the fruit, but only a few of them are imported to us. Therefore, in supermarkets or markets, you will most likely find one of these three varieties of avocados with their characteristic features:
- california avocado- in a ripe state, a variety with a very dark, brown-green, sometimes almost brown skin, the flesh under which is soft and not elastic. Such an avocado is good for making pates, sauces and guacamole, but not salads. When choosing a Californian avocado, carefully examine its surface: on a dark skin, it is difficult not to notice damage and signs of spoilage. But this variety of avocado is ripe throughout the year.
- Florida avocado- the skin of this variety, even in a ripe state, remains green color and stays thin and smooth. The pulp under it is always dense, even being very ripe it keeps its shape well. Therefore, choose such an avocado if you plan to cook a salad or a roll. True, it is possible to find Florida avocados on sale only in winter and spring, but their taste is the mildest, and the calorie content is the lowest of all varieties of avocados.
- Avocado Pinkerton It is considered a universal variety and, in terms of skin color and pulp density in a ripe state, it occupies an intermediate position between the two previous varieties. The ripe fruit is covered with large pimples and has an elongated shape with an oblong narrow part. And the stone in the Pinkerton avocado is the smallest, which means that it has more pulp than in the fruits of other varieties of avocados.
Choosing a ripe avocado
Only a perfectly ripe avocado, without dents or overripe areas, has a mild, slightly nutty flavor and a surprisingly pleasant, tender and buttery texture. Such a fruit gives any culinary specialist a huge field for creativity and gastronomic experiments. The simplest and useful method- use avocados in cold dishes (salads, sandwiches and as independent garnish) or just pour lemon juice and is on its own. Avocado appetizers take longer to prepare, but traditional mexican sauce guacamole, cold mashed soups and avocado pâtés were and still are hits of all restaurants. Regular use avocado, not passed heat treatment, prolongs youth, strengthens the immune system, makes the skin supple, and hair and nails - strong and shiny. Want to experience these miraculous effects for yourself? Then try to determine the quality and ripeness of an avocado by the following signs: 
Do not be upset if you learned about these nuances too late and already managed to buy an unripe avocado. You can also try to save the situation: for this, put the unripe fruit in a paper bag along with a large banana and / or apple and leave it at room temperature for a couple of days. If the avocado has not been damaged or spoiled, then during this time it will ripen under the influence of "neighbors". This trick can be used if for some reason you need to buy an avocado in advance and keep it for a short time (up to a week). Then specifically buy an unripe fruit, and as the cooking time approaches, speed up its ripening in the described way with the help of a bag and ripe fruit. By the way, for storage, the pulp of an avocado can even be frozen. But it is best, of course, to buy an alligator pear immediately before use - after all, only fresh fruits preserve a maximum of vitamins, microelements and other useful substances. Therefore, often treat yourself and your loved ones to dishes with fresh, ripe avocados and be healthy!
