Consider your choice of a knife carefully the next time you reach for the cutlery drawer to prepare your morning avocado toast. The material of your instrument is just as crucial as its size when it comes to doing the task right, just as you wouldn’t use a huge butcher’s knife to cut out that luscious avocado flesh. Unbelievably, using a metal knife to cut avocados may be one of the most frequent cooking errors made by home cooks, often without them even being aware of it. Here’s the best-kept technique for chopping avocados.
According to Allrecipes, using a metal knife to cut an avocado may hasten browning, which is especially undesirable if you only consume one half of the avocado right away and store the other half for later. Browning might not be as much of an issue for you if you want to utilize the entire avocado at once or if you’re making a mashed-up meal like guacamole. At this point, you might want to spend some money on a helpful avocado gadget that combines dicing and slicing in a single motion.
However, metal knives accelerate the process and darken your lovely green avocados.
Why does the knife’s construction matter?
According to Allrecipes, since stainless steel knives contain copper and iron, they trigger the enzymes in avocados that make the fruit’s flesh turn brown when exposed to oxygen. Using a metal knife to cut into an avocado speed up the browning process, which increases the risk of your avocado going bad too soon. This process, known as “oxidation,” occurs when a molecule or atom is exposed to an elevated oxygen level and starts losing electrons, according to biochemist Anne Marie Helmenstine, Ph.D. (via ThoughtCo.)
According to Reader’s Digest, celebrity chef Nick Stellino, host of “Storyteller in the Kitchen,” advises chopping those avocados using a plastic or ceramic knife to avoid this reaction from turning them into a patchy brown waste. The Kyocera Revolution 4.5″ Ceramic Utility Knife is a tiny, agile instrument for cutting smaller fruits and vegetables (like avocados) without oxidation.
There are different methods to prevent the deterioration of your avocados.
If you don’t have many knife alternatives, there are still some things you can do to prevent color fading in your avocados.
The avocado should be placed on top of the onion slices in the bottom of an airtight container before the container is tightly sealed, suggests Kitchen. Although Kitchen doesn’t explain why onions prevent avocados from becoming entirely brown, the website indicates that the unique sulfur compounds they contain, which The New York Times reports are also present in garlic, may be responsible. Although some browning may occur, according to Food52, doing so could help the avocado retain its green hue for a while.
Having the proper knife is simply 1/2 of the battle. How you cope with avocado can be simply as essential because the blade you operate reduces it.
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