Posted on 05/03/2022 7:07:25 AM PDT by Red Badger
"Avocado hand" is real. I would know. Follow these tips for perfectly pitted avocados without the trip to the ER.
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See this sharp knife? It could give you "avocado hand."
James Martin/CNET
This story is part of Try This, CNET's collection of simple tips to improve your life, fast.
Every year, thousands of well-intentioned cooks experience "avocado hand" -- the official term for an injury that occurs when you're trying to remove the avocado pit with a knife and you accidentally pierce your hand instead of the pit. The wound can require anything from a bandaid to stitches or surgery.
I should know because it happened to me last year. I had a little too much wine before adding the final touch to my Mexican mole enchiladas: a topping of avocado slices. Cradling the freshly halved fruit in my hand, I struck at the pit with a fencing jab. The tiny but ferocious knife blade missed and punctured my palm, hitting a nerve under my ring finger. There was minimal blood, so despite almost fainting and losing sensation in two fingertips, I gallantly gauzed up my hand and continued entertaining my guests.
The next day at urgent care, I described my stab wound as a "kitchen accident." The physician responded: "Cutting an avocado, eh? We get that all the time."
CNET Try This
One Insider analysis estimated nearly 9,000 avocado-related visits to the ER in the US during 2018 -- that's almost 25 people a day. According to one doctor I spoke with, many occur during Super Bowl parties, when guacamole-loving football fans eat some 105 million pounds of avocados.
Everyone has their preferred technique to remove the avocado pit -- some families pass it down through generations. Many insist on striking the pit with the blade of the knife, then twisting the seed out while protecting your hand with a dish towel or potholder. But that method still involves risk, especially since you then have to remove the pit from the sharp blade.
I know better and safer ways. Whether you're making avocado toast, guacamole or a Cobb salad, here are two techniques for removing the seed that don't require any sharp knives. For more tips, here's how to slice a cake without a knife and how to put an end to junk mail.
The first rule: Never use a sharp knife
To get started, all you'll need is a butter or table knife to cut the avocado in half. Note that both of these techniques work best on a ripe avocado.
Place the avocado on its side on a cutting board or other surface. Using your dull knife, pierce the skin down to the pit and rotate the avocado in a rolling motion away from you until you've sliced the avocado in half, all the way through.
Then, separate the two sides of the avocado by twisting the halves in opposite directions.
Pro tip: You can use that same knife to slice the avocado up once you're done removing the pit.
Safety option No. 1: Remove the pit via 'the scoop technique' For this method, grab a spoon. I prefer to use a regular teaspoon size with a pointier tip -- not a soup spoon.
Now, position the spoon under the narrower part of the pit. Then just lift the pit out by scooping it.
Safety option No. 2: Remove the pit via 'the push technique' Using the spoon is cool, sure, but this second method requires nothing more than your fingers.
Place your index and middle fingers on either side of the pit, with your thumb on the backside (skin) of the avocado, almost like you're gently gripping a baseball -- or forming an upside-down tripod around the base. Then push the pit forward with your thumb as if you're plunging a syringe, and the seed will pop out.
The only potential risk with either of these "no-knife" methods is a flying pit. Be sure to aim away from children, small pets or anything breakable.
For more fun (and safe) techniques, check out how to degunk your shower head, how to unclog your toilet without a plunger and how to open up a beer bottle without a bottle opener.
Food Ping!....................
We need to pass common sense avocado control now!
Seriously people used a knife to pry out the pit...
Cooking Under the Influence. See it all the time
There’s no reason a person needs an assault avocado.
I cut in four...then twist and turn. Spoon scoop works okay.
Oh fergoshsakes - always use a very sharp knife. Cut in single motion from stem to other end and back to the stem again, around the pit. Twist the halves and remove one to expose the pit. Lightly ‘hack’ the knife edge into the center of the pit and twist - the pit pops right out. Leave two perfectly clean halves for making slices, or easy scooping.
Buy a soft avocado and use a spoon... please
Anyone who does the “avocado-pit-removal-with-a-big-knife” while holding it in their hand should not be allowed near knives.
I use a knife.
Bang the handle on the cutting board when the pit is on it.
Voila! Flying pit!
That is the way I always do it. I can’t imagine someone trying to stab the avocado with the point. You are almost begging someone for a ride to the ER.
“Oh fergoshsakes - always use a very sharp knife. Cut in single motion from stem to other end and back to the stem again, around the pit. Twist the halves and remove one to expose the pit. Lightly ‘hack’ the knife edge into the center of the pit and twist - the pit pops right out. Leave two perfectly clean halves for making slices, or easy scooping.”
This is the way I learned to do it working in a mexican restaurant. Don’t spear the damned pit, you’re just asking for trouble that way. Hack it!
Your local ER doctors are the ones leaving those pamphlets in the “whole foods” store advising you to spear an avocado pit. Who does that? Only possessed people.
Pro tip: A very sharp knife, wielded properly is a lot safer than a dull one.
Advise all liberals to suck the pit out. It’s for the children.
Seriously, people need a training video? You flick away from your hand.
ya gotta be pretty dumb to eff up with the knife.
careful making that chiffonade, you’ll cut yer dick off...
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