I Tried the Viral Avocado Ripening Hack—Here’s My Brutally Honest Review

Just cause you can, doesn't mean you should.

Nearly anyone who’s invested in an avocado has been there: stuck with a rock-hard piece of fruit right when the mood strikes for avocado toast, guacamole, or one of these luscious avocado desserts. Having an underripe avocado at home is probably a more common conundrum than ever, amidst the rise in popularity and ease of online grocery ordering for pick-up or delivery. If you outsource the selection, it’s far tougher to dial in your ideal ripeness level for items like bananas, peaches, and avocados.

Rather than turning to one of these three tested-and-true tricks to ripen an avocado, some social media users are taking matters into their own hands to try to speed up the hands of time.

One TikTok creator says, “This tip has saved me so many times.” Another raves that this hack to make avocados “officially ripe…is for the ultra-procrastinators.”

So what’s the supposed secret? Microwaving the avocado.

Can You Microwave Avocados to Ripen Quickly

Admittedly, I came into my own trial a bit skeptical, as both California Avocados and Avocados From Mexico experts advise against microwaving avocados. Still, with party season in full swing and my sights set on bringing a mountain of guac to my next potluck,  I couldn’t resist trying it out myself to see how this buzzy social media hack stacks up. Perhaps the only thing standing between a solid avocado and a smashable one is a short shift in the microwave.

My research started at the supermarket, where I sorted through the bin of avocados to try to find the firmest of the bunch. I was lucky enough to discover one that felt more like a tennis ball than a piece of ready-to-slice produce. In most normal occasions, that avocado would be left for later. But for this purpose, it was just right.

After paying for, bringing home, and washing the avocado, I wasted zero time. I followed the instructions shared on many of these social media videos: Slice the avocado in half, remove the pit, then wrap each half tightly in plastic wrap. I microwaved the avocado halves, cut-side down, in 30-second intervals until the fruit felt soft enough to use.

By the time I was halfway through my second interval, around the 46-second mark, the plastic wrap made a popping noise, so I stopped the appliance. The avocado halves were steaming hot and feeling soft. To cease the cooking process and get the avocado pieces to a cool enough temperature to handle, the videos advise either running the still-wrapped avocados under cool water, dunking them in a bowl of ice water,  or placing them in the refrigerator for 10 minutes or so.

I opted to quickly rinse the avocados under cool, running water for about 20 seconds as I toasted a couple pieces of sourdough bread. Once the avocados were around room temperature, I proceeded to remove the wrapping, then peeled one half. I sliced and layered one-quarter of the avocado on one slice, then used a fork to mash the rest for the other slice.

True, the flesh felt ripe, however, the color turned ever so slightly brown. (It looked similar to what you might be familiar with if you’ve seen an avocado be victim to a bit of oxidation.) It also felt faintly rubbery, and the flavor, while still avocado-esque, wasn’t nearly as buttery and nutty as it usually is with a ripe avocado. It tasted muted and faintly like the avocados I know, love (and most recently experienced in their true glory as avocado fries).

Turns out, “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. Patience is key.”

The Best Way to Ripen an Avocado

Next time, I’ll stick to ripening on the counter, or turn to my usual go-to trick for slightly speedier avocado ripening: popping the avocado in a brown paper bag alongside an apple. Since apples naturally emit a gas called ethylene, they can speed up the ripening. In a closed bag with an apple in tow, I find that a hard avocado is generally good to go in 24 to 36 hours.

The Bottom Line

Rather than hurrying things along to be left with bland and “blah” fruit, that buttery bliss is worth the wait, if you ask me. The microwave makes the fruit feel ripe, but the quality really suffers.

Read the original article on All Recipes.