How To Pick & Buy Ripe Avocados
You just have to know where to look
One of life's greatest disappointments is going to the store to buy avocados for guacamole and not finding a single ripe one in the bunch. Sure, there are a few tricks we can try to ripen the fruit at home, but we want an even simpler solution. Like knowing where to look to find the ripe avocado that's right in front of us.
Ripe avocados are more likely to be found at the bottom of the pile.
According to J. Kenji López-Alt, ethylene gas, a natural gas that is released from fruit and vegetables as they ripen, lives down at the bottom of a pile, meaning where the ripest avocados are likely to be found. Sure, you might have to dig a little, but just think how awesome your guacamole is going to taste later.
So, how can you tell if an avocado is ripe? Pick the stem off (which should be easy to remove) and look for green underneath. If the stem doesn't come off, it's not ripe enough; if it's brown underneath, then the avocado is overripe.
If you still don't find the avocado you're looking for, you can always wrap an unripe one in foil and put it in the oven for about an hour.