Ripen Avocados

I haven't tried this yet but thought I'd pass it on. We eat a lot of avocados and this would be a nice trick when you don't get the next batch out of the fridge to ripen t the right time.

Not Ripe? No Problem: How to Ripen an Avocado in 10 Minutes!

What if you’ve checked every avocado in the grocery bin, and they’re all rock-hard? Before you give up on getting your superfood fix, try this easy trick to ripen an avocado in only 10 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 200°F. As you wait for the oven to heat up, wrap the avocado in aluminum foil, parchment paper, or place it in a covered ceramic dish.
Put the wrapped or covered avocado on a baking sheet and bake it in the preheated oven for 10 minutes.
Remove the softened avocado from the oven and put it in the fridge to cool it down.
How does it work?
If you’re a science geek like me, you’ll want to know why this food hack works!

Fruits naturally ripen by slowly producing ethylene gas. In this case, the low heat from the oven causes the avocado to increase the production of that gas, while the foil or parchment traps the ethylene to speed up the ripening process.

[Jenise]

And that's why putting an avocado in a brown paper bag will hasten natural ripening. But baking it? I don't buy it. And even if it got softer, it wouldn't neccessarily taste right.

And that's why putting an avocado in a brown paper bag will hasten natural ripening. But baking it? I don't buy it.

Especially if you add a banana or apple.

[Jenise]

And 200 may not be high enough to bring out super bad things, but in general the reason for not cooking with avocados is that heat brings out bitterness. How many recipes for hot avocado-anything have you seen? That's why.

so I tried this once years ago. It softened an avocado that was maybe a day short of being ripe (not the hard green 4 day away type). I think it took more like 20-30 minutes to get some softeness. But the flavor I expect in a ripe avocado wasn't there. If I was putting into a salad , I'd definitely skip this "trick." I GUESS if you absolutely had to make guacamole with unripe avocados you could do to make it mashable, but don't expect real avocado flavor.

I've read that heating an avocado does several terrible things to it, such as texture, taste, etc.

Thanks for the feedback - will cancel my trial bake-off!

“the microwave or oven may soften the flesh of the fruit a little which may make it 'seem' ripe, but it isn't,” according to the team at California Avocados. “Ripening avocados is a process best left to Mother Nature's timeline." So there you have the word from California Avoados!
As posted before, an avocado is ready to eat when you gently push in the little stem piece. If it moves back into the avocado, it is ready. It can be put in the refrigerator now and eaten soon.