Once of the saddest things an avocado lover experiences is the moment you go to make yourself a delicious ‘gram-worthy avocado toast or guac only to find out it’s gone brown and rotten. I’m ashamed to admit it, but this sight has actually brought me to tears before (it was finals season). So, I decided to test out a number of different methods and finally get a definitive answer on how to store avocados so they don’t turn brown.
Before You Cut Them
While it’s not recommended to permanently store avocados in the fridge (especially while ripening), you can store them in the fridge once they’re already perfectly ripe. If you know you won’t be able to use them up for a couple days, throwing those avocados in the fridge can slow down the ripening process and buy you some time before you can use them up.
After You’ve Cut Them
Lemon Juice Method
The reason that avocados go brown so quickly is because they’re really good at oxidizing. Good job avo’s, but that’s not so good for us. To stop avocados from going brown, use something that either keeps oxygen away from the flesh altogether or something that slows down the oxidizing process.
One of the best things used to slow the process is lemon juice. To use it properly just brush it onto all of the exposed flesh of the avocado, making sure there are no gaps. Then, wrap the avocado in plastic wrap and place it in an airtight container before storing it in the fridge.
Olive Oil Method
I used the same technique with the olive oil as the lemon juice and it worked fairly well because the oil prevents oxygen from getting to the avocado. However, I did find that it left my avocado with a slimy film on top. No thank you to that.
Onion Method
Chop up about a 1/4 of any type of onion and store it in an airtight container with the your avocado. This method apparently works better if the onion is touching the cut part of the avocado, but it also leaves a distinctly onion-y taste. For mine, I just put the onion in the same container, but not touching any part of the avo flesh, and it worked fairly well for me.
This trick is supposed to work because of the same waterworks-causing vapours that onions emit. The vaporized sulphur compounds might make you grab more some tissues, but they also work really well as a preservative.
Keeping the Pit In Method
This the most widely used method from what I’ve found talking with friends and fellow avocado lovers, and what I use most regularly. This method is effective, but only in keeping the parts of the avocado the pit is touching from going brown because it has an airtight seal with the areas surrounding it. This means that no oxygen can get in, which means no oxidizing. Not such great news for any parts of the avocado that aren’t touching it, though.
However, while researching if putting the pit in guacamole helped, I came across an article that jokingly suggested the pit kept the guac green by exuding a “protective aura that reminds the guac where it came from.” Unfortunately, I found that it’s generally agreed that putting the pit in guac is wishful thinking but the image of that protective aura made me smile enough to include it in the article.
Plastic Wrap Method
This method on how to store avocados can be combined with several of the other methods and it works so well because it does the best job of keeping oxygen away from the flesh of the avocado. For double protection, wrap the avocado tightly in plastic wrap, then place it in an airtight container before popping it in the fridge.
Out of all of the different ways to store avocados, I found that the best results came when I combined the lemon juice method with the pit and plastic wrap method. The more the merrier, apparently.
However, this is just what worked best for me and you might find different results. The next time you’re looking to figure out how to store avocados so they don’t go brown, think back to these methods to find out exactly what will make sure your avocados stay green and delicious (almost) forever.