The easiest way to prevent an avocado from browning is to eat the whole thing in one sitting, but if you just want a couple of slices, a thin coating of oil can prevent the rest from oxidizing.
Photo by cyclonebill.
Serena Bass at Epicurious uses a thin coating of Pam to keep her avocados looking fresh; a fine mist kept one half bright and green for three days just sitting on a counter. You could use trusty ol’ Pam, but I don’t see why a mist of olive oil or even avocado oil (meta) wouldn’t accomplish the same thing. No matter what oil you spray onto the delightfully fatty fruit, it will create an oxygen barrier, keeping your avo perfectly pretty until your ready to polish it off. Just wipe of the excess oil and enjoy!
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Comments
3 responses to “Prevent Avocados From Browning With Cooking Spray”
Nice. 🙂
The question I’ve always had is, “Are those brown spots really so bad that you should pick them out?” (Or go to any particular lengths to preserve longevity?)
Did some research and according to a few sites (including the Hass Avocado Board’s FAQ) apparently, yes, you probably should. Thanks to the oxidization process and the fact that avo flesh is a high (good) fat food, the brown parts are basically rancid fat. Won’t kill you, but won’t taste great and aren’t good for you.
Interestingly, bruising has much the same oxidizing effect as air-exposure, thanks to the bruises being a result of impact/compression-based damage to the cell walls. Cell walls which protect against oxidization. Thus, the fresh but bruised fruit was oxidizing inside without actually being exposed to ‘open air’.
Again… not actually harmful, just bitter. Unless that damage allowed it to contract mold or other infection, in which case yes, harmful. So best be safe and scrape out the not-tasty/potentially-compromised part anyway.
“your ready to polish” – you’re…
Lemon juice also works.