Chef James Barry explains why avocados brown (an enzyme called polyphenol oxidase reacts with oxygen) and tests methods to slow it. Water submersion keeps it green for hours but gets slimy after 24 hours. For guacamole, a salt-water soak (2 tablespoons salt per cup of water, 15 minutes) keeps it bright without the slime.
So today we are talking about avocados. The pesky thing about avocados is that they turn brown, and we get asked all the time, what can I do, Chef James, to not have my avocados turn brown? So let's first talk about why do they brown, and I had notes for this because I can't remember these terms. So avocados, they have an enzyme called polyphenol oxidase. And it's that enzyme that when it hits oxygen or it's exposed to the air, it causes the avocado to turn brown, right? So, we're told there are many ways to help it not turn brown, like using oil, whether it's vegetable spray, olive oil, doesn't matter, just covering the exposed avocado with oil. We're told to use lemon or lime juice. We're told that that works. Personally, I found that neither works very well. The one that we are told the most is to leave the pit into the half that you're not eating. So if you're storing an avocado, keep that half with the pit still in it. That's a great idea, but what happens though is that the meat that's underneath the avocado, that's underneath the pit, stays green, but the exposed part still turns brown. So, you do have a couple options, but sadly, they all lead to a similar outcome. So, let's first talk about the options and then we'll get to the outcome. You can, let's say you wanted to store the avocado half that you have not eaten. Now, in this part, you're going to need to expose it. So, you'd have to take out the pit and then you'd have to be able to stick it into To a bowl with a little bit of water, just a tiny bit, enough to cover that avocado that is exposed to air. Now by doing that, what happens though is it will stay green, but it can get slimy if you leave it in the refrigerator for too long. If you're, let's say, leaving it for just a few hours, maybe half a day, then you should be okay. But after 24 hours, it's going to be slimy. And basically the outcome of that is you're going to have to slice off the slimy part, unless you just want to blend it with the slimy part in it because it's a sauce or it's a guacamole and they're not going to notice. That's fine too. But for the most part, you're going to have to cut that slimy part off. The other option is you can cover it with plastic wrap, so you can kind of do a mix of the two. Coat it with some lime or lemon juice, and then cover and make sure that it's fully— now in that scenario, you can keep it, the pit on, but make sure that it's fully covered with that plastic wrap. Now that's tough to do though because there are going to be pockets of air in it, so it's not necessarily the best option. The other option is eating both halves once you cut it, and I know that that is sometimes challenging because you're like, well, I already used half, I don't need the other half. But you can always buy smaller avocados. I notice that every store I go to, they have large avocados, they have small avocados. And if you're someone that's always finding that you have half an avocado left, buy smaller ones, and then that way you're using them all at once. That's probably the best tip I can tell you around helping to have it not oxidize. Now, the other thing you could do if you're making guacamole, this, this actually helps The guacamole to stay green is you take your avocado, and it can still have its pit in there or not, doesn't matter, and you put it in, let's say, depending on how big your avocado is, like 2 cups of water. But basically, for every cup of water, you're putting 2 tablespoons of sea salt or salt. Doesn't matter if it's sea salt, it could just be any salt. So 2 cups of water would mean you would be putting a 4th of a cup of salt in there, and you just let it soak for 15 minutes. And after that 15 minutes, your avocado will still be bright, it won't be slimy, and then make your guacamole using that avocado. And what happens is that guacamole stays greener longer. So that's it for guacamole. Sorry I don't have a great answer for you because really the outcome of any of this stuff is you're going to have to slice off the brown part. So the best thing you can do is just buy a smaller avocado and just use it all at the time you're eating it. Thank you so much. If you have any questions or if you have any topics you'd like us to cover, please leave your comments down below.
