Finding a ripe avocado at the supermarket is hit or miss, so what can you do if you need an avocado right away? Tasting Table shared a food science tip for quickly ripening avocados with help from an unexpected source: a banana!
Ripe bananas release a lot of ethylene, the hormone that triggers ripening in mature fruit, so placing one in a closed paper bag with your under-ripe avocados will speed up the process. I tried it with a couple avocados that were just beginning to soften, and within 24 hours, they were perfectly soft and ready to eat.
Apples are another fruit that release a good amount of ethylene, so this would also work with a ripe apple.
Check it out: How to Deal with Unripened Avocados at Tasting Table
Do you have any tips for ripening an avocado more quickly?
Related: 10 Ways To Eat an Avocado for Breakfast
(Image: Emma Christensen)
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should the banana be peeled or unpeeled?
I've also found that leaving a ripe avocado next to cluster of underripe bananas will cause the bananas to rapidly ripen. Keep a close eye, especially if you prefer your bananas slightly underripe, as I do.
I do this often and to answer the question above, use an unpeeled banana. But one caveat is that this won't work all that quickly for a rock hard avocado; definitely NOT 24 hours, not even 48...the avocado needs to have some give to it for this to work.
Put the bag on top of the refrigerator!
Even better than the top of the refrigerator: baseboard heaters or a space heater. Bagged avocado + unpeeled banana(s) + good heat source = quick ripening!
I've heard onions work too, but I haven't tried. Also, does it work quicker if you put them in a paper bag together?
It's enough to either put the avocados in a paper bag and in a dark place, OR just leave them (unbagged) on the counter, next to the bananas.
I think these food combinations are so fascinating! Like storing potatoes and onions in the same bowl, both will sprout faster. I'll have to try this with my avocados in the future - I always buy them under-ripe so they last longer, but then I don't have avocados for a few days...
Ethylene is not a hormone, it's a gas.
LOL @ catherineap, thought I was the only one. It's the gas that triggers some as-yet-unnamed-here hormone I guess.
Ethylene is in fact a plant hormone, as well as being a gas. It causes ripening. That's what I learned in Botany, anyway.
As far as I know, apples release more ethylene than other common fruits and veg (including bananas) - I just chuck an apple or 2 in a paper bag with my avocados - it ripens them up quickly.
@catherineap, @Jess13: Ethylene is actually released by the fruit before it starts ripening, so in addition to being a gas, it is a hormone that initiates the process of ripening (as @juliadevi mentioned.)
I do the same thing with pears. If I get them unriipe (and hard) at the grocery and then ripen them in a brown paper bag with a banana or two, I have much more control over bruising.
and if you feel like exploring the fun world of banana ripening:
http://www.ediblegeography.com/spaces-of-banana-control/
A great article on a banana ripening facility in the Bronx, NY.
Tossing an apple in a paper bag with an avocado works really well too. When we're desperate, we use a banana AND apple in a paper bag with the avocado(s).
I wish my avocados actually looked like the one in the picture. Mine never look that pretty!
I ripen a pretty hard avocado in 24 hours by immersing it in a container of flour...I make sure it's completely covered. Actually, since I don't use white flour for anything anymore, I put it in the flour bin covered for a day.