Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Stop Using a Knife to Remove an Avocado Pit. Here's How to Do It Safely
CNET ^ | May 2, 2022 4:15 a.m. PT | Laura Michelle Davis

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.

======================================================================

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.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Food; Health/Medicine; Society
KEYWORDS: avocados; cookery
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-53 last
To: JayGalt

Not exactly. You take a sharp knife and ‘chop’ into the pit. That is intended to give you traction to twist the pit out. Only problem is that the knife may glance off the pit and hit the fingers of the hand stabilizing the Avocado. Any knife sharp enough to bit into an avocado pit will send you to the ER.


41 posted on 05/03/2022 9:14:07 AM PDT by Tallguy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger
VIDEO AT LINK....

No it's not

42 posted on 05/03/2022 9:14:32 AM PDT by Hot Tabasco (I'm Jimmy Crack Corn and I don't care)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Chauncey Gardiner

Soft avocados are rare in the off-season when they are trucking them up from Mexico. Most of the black avocados that I get are pretty firm.


43 posted on 05/03/2022 9:16:08 AM PDT by Tallguy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

Hold the avocado half with the pit in the palm of your hand, swing the knife PARALLEL to your hand catching the pit with the length of the blade, not the tip. Twist the pit out of the fruit. Trying to pierce the pit with the tip of the blade aimed at your palm is visibly suicidal and those who try it are of a lower mental order.

Score the avocado fruit with the tip of the knife and scoop our either slices or diced chunks, depending on your preference, with a large spoon. The chef at my local taco wagon can do a dozen avocados in 49 seconds. His hands are free of scars. He operates his blade with the confidence of a Viking berserker.


44 posted on 05/03/2022 9:20:31 AM PDT by Yollopoliuhqui
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

Actual link: https://www.cnet.com/home/kitchen-and-household/stop-using-a-knife-to-remove-an-avocado-pit-heres-how-to-do-it-safely/


45 posted on 05/03/2022 9:21:57 AM PDT by Mr.Unique (My boss wants me to sign up for a 401K. No way I'm running that far! )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: decal

Agreed. Both my husband and I just don’t understand the attraction to avocados. They are tasteless and fattening. When made into guacamole, it is barely tolerable.
Of course, when we lived in Hawaii, we didn’t like poi either.


46 posted on 05/03/2022 9:26:32 AM PDT by chronicles
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 39 | View Replies]

To: Tallguy

Knives slip and I would never use one in that manner. Pits are easy to remove with a spoon why use a knife to remove a pit.
Traction is more accurately provided by use of a spoon. Knife is a short cut because it’s in your hand but it’s a poor choice.


47 posted on 05/03/2022 9:40:24 AM PDT by JayGalt (For evil men to accomplish their purpose it is only necessary that good men should do nothing.”)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 41 | View Replies]

To: Trump Girl Kit Cat

Chefs do lots of things that less experienced folks should avoid.


48 posted on 05/03/2022 9:41:30 AM PDT by JayGalt (For evil men to accomplish their purpose it is only necessary that good men should do nothing.”)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 38 | View Replies]

To: Hot Tabasco

https://www.cnet.com/home/kitchen-and-household/stop-using-a-knife-to-remove-an-avocado-pit-heres-how-to-do-it-safely/

They switched my link!..............


49 posted on 05/03/2022 9:44:36 AM PDT by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegal aliens are put up in hotels.....................)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 42 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

“The first rule: Never use a sharp knife”

Dull knives cause more injuries than sharp knives because you have to use more force with a dull knife.
https://lifehacker.com/keep-your-knives-sharp-dull-knives-cause-more-injuries-5849430


50 posted on 05/03/2022 10:37:19 AM PDT by Pythion.net
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger
Cradling the freshly halved fruit in my hand, I struck at the pit with a fencing jab.

The idiot author should stick to butter knives. The rest of us will be fine.

51 posted on 05/03/2022 12:08:26 PM PDT by ETCM
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

Stick a fork in it - pop - You’re done.

Wonder if this guy’s writing a book on this?

;-)


52 posted on 05/03/2022 12:24:38 PM PDT by Tunehead54 (Nothing funny here ; - )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

Weird. I’ve never had an avocado incident.


53 posted on 05/03/2022 7:30:22 PM PDT by Trillian
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-53 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson