Never let guacamole turn brown again: this is the best way to store it
Did you prepare a fantastic guacamole for your party, trying to do everything right… only to find it grayish-brown when you take it out of the fridge? Oh, there goes your star dish of the evening (because you know how to make the perfect guacamole). What now? I don’t know whether you can still save your guacamole that same evening, but I can help you avoid mistakes in the future. I’ve discovered the very best way to make your guacamole—without it turning into brown mush, that is.
Storing guacamole: there are quite a few tricks you can use. That’s exactly what The Kitchn did. Nine tricks, to be precise. One of them came out on top. There was no other, better way to keep your guacamole as fresh as possible. And the best part is… It’s a simple method too.
Oxidation
First of all: why does guacamole turn brown so quickly? It’s because the avocado in the guacamole oxidizes. Avocado’s biggest enemy is oxygen. When it comes into contact with it (in other words: when you take it out of its skin), the enzymes in the avocado react to it. So they oxidize. That’s exactly why it turns an unattractive, slightly unpleasant brown color. It’s not necessarily inedible, but it simply doesn’t look appetizing. And it does affect the taste somewhat too.
Storing guacamole: nine methods
Fortunately, there are ways to keep your guacamole as fresh and green as possible. It’s just that some methods work better than others. The team at The Kitchn tested nine of them. What exactly did they do? They sprayed the guacamole with cooking spray, put it in a special ‘guacamole container’, added a layer of water, left the avocado pit in the guacamole, spread it with some olive oil, covered it with avocado skins, put plastic wrap on top, drizzled it with lemon juice, and with lime juice. Each of these methods does something for your guacamole, but one really stood out.
The winner
And that’s the method where you drizzle lemon juice over your guacamole. Lemon juice ensures that your guacamole barely turns brown, if at all. After one hour, an hour and a half, and two hours, it still looked fresh, without the juice significantly affecting the taste of the guacamole. Great! Lime juice has almost the same effect, by the way, but The Kitchn’s test showed that lemon juice worked just slightly better. How much juice? That depends somewhat on how much guacamole you make. In this test, about 180 grams of guacamole was made, and the juice of half a lemon was drizzled over it. Top tip: how to squeeze a lemon without a knife or seeds.
This method actually reminds me of drizzling lemon juice over sliced apples. When I make apple pie, I always drizzle some lemon juice over the sliced apple pieces too. It keeps them from turning brown.
Also read:
- What’s actually in those bottles of supermarket lemon juice?
- 5 times lemon is your household lifesaver
- This is the secret ingredient for the most delicious apple pie
Source: The Kitchn
