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.
Exactly. Been doing that ways since I was 8. My mom taught me how to make Guac.
Here’s the way to cut an avocado. I’ve been using this method for 40 years and have never suffered so much as a scratch. First, take a small paring knife and slice into the avocado at the top, the smaller end, down to the nut. Then, move the knife around to the bottom of the avocado and then back to the top, keeping the knife in contact with the nut. Next rotate the avocado 90 degrees and make the same cut, from the top to the bottom and back up again. Now, starting that the smaller end, take the point of the avocado’s skin and peal it back to the bottom to remove it. Repeat this with the other three quarters. Finally, starting at the middle of the avocado, peal the quarters apart from the nut. They will come off cleanly and easily.
Always suspicious of anyone that recommends using a ‘dull knife’.
Knives should always be as sharp as possible - if you don’t want sharp, use something else.
People who have to be told how to do these simple things have Biden-like brains.
“I had a little too much wine before adding the final touch to my Mexican mole enchiladas...”
Dumb@ss! You make the Enchiladas FIRST, THEN you drink the Tequila!
That’s how I do it.
Who uses a fencing thrust on an avocado pit?
Cook and prepare food now, drink later!
Oh, c’mon... Hold the avocado half up to your face with your left hand, with the pit as close to your left eyeball as possible. Then with your right hand violently stab the pit with the sharpest, pointy-est knife in the drawer.
Been doing that for 50 years. Never had an accident yet (’cause I’m scared of missing and putting my eye out... so I NEVER miss).
And if you believe that, swear off avocados RIGHT NOW!
I have never used a knife — just cut the avocado in half and pop out the pit with a spoon. Works every time, even on more solid avocados.
That’s what I do....2 cuts and a wiggle.
When it’s all done guacing of course
I tie string around the avocado and suspend it from the chandelier. Give it a firm but gentle push for it to act in a pendulum motion. Then at exactly 20 paces fling your throwing knife at it at the exact moment it will catch it in mid-swing. If you’ve done it correctly, the pit will drop neatly down in the plate placed below. Then go collect your flesh and spoon it out. Remember, this must be practiced regularly to stay sharp so you can impress friends and astound enemies at social gatherings.
All Guacamole are Avocado but not all Avocado are Guacamole!
Yah, I’ve been doing it that way for 40+ years. Seriously, someone gets a cut from removing a pit from a sharp knife? How incompetent are you?
If drunk, stay away from ALLLLLL sharp objects.
LOL! I hope the DUmmie lurkers here from DU are reading this and hanging on your every word!
People are really this dumb, that “avacado hand” is a thing, huh?
Owning restaurants for decades we ALWAYS took the blade of the knife and basically slam it into the pit then twist easy peasy, HOWEVER I can see how home cooks could miss the pit with the knife and end up having stitches!!!
Nothing could be easier than properly dealing with an avocado: throw the nasty green library paste out as good-for-nothing.
That’s the ticket!
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