I've been cutting avocados this way for years. I'm glad I'm doing it correctly! Using the knife to remove the pit is the key.

I like using an "avocado slicer" after removing the seed. Just slip the end down the inside of the peel and voila!

http://www.nexternal.com/thinkavo/images/avomasher2.jpg

A small lightweight vegetable knife will do fine to remove the pit. I just lay it parallell to the avocado surface (and my hand) and press it gently into the pit, then twist and the pit pops out. No risk of cutting yourself, and if the knife was sharper than you thought and you accidentally cut through the pit and level it to the avocado, well, the spoon does it...
An unripe avocado will be harder to peel, but can actually taste great when finely chopped into a salad. If the peel won't come off the normal way, I simply use a potato peeler.

What I would suggest is do not slice the avacado and do not peel it.
instead serve as:
- cut the full avacado into half
- get the seed out
- for 1 full avacado mix 1 table spoon of olive oil with 1 table spoon of lemon juice and pour into the round part of the avacado
- slice some 2 leaves of lettuce (very thin)
- mix it with a 1 table spoon of mayoneise
- put it in the avacado (enough for 1 full avacado)
- serve each half as a starter
- add salt if you prefer

I prefer to peel the avocado after slicing it in half-- that way, you have only two segments of peel to remove, not several. Then I go ahead and slice it. I think this method makes for neater slices, too.

I too have skewered my hand and now use a spoon to get the pit out. Not as clean and "quick" but I don't want to stab my hand again. :)

I generally continue to slice around the pit, once you get to quarters it is easier to remove and quicker. After 20 years of guac making, I'm pretty comfortable with it, and haven't cut myself yet! :)

You've got to be kidding! Do not hold the avocado in your hand while you are striking it with a knife! Place it on a cutting board then strike the pit with the knife. When the knife is lodged in the pit you can pick up the avocado give the knife a quick twist and the the pit will pop out. Carefully remove the pit from the knife by approaching the pit from the back side of the knife and giving the pit a gentle nudge. Using a large spoon to scoop out the entire avocado half makes for a neat extraction. Place on cutting board, flat side down, for stability and slice or dice as desired.

I learned this technique as a teenager, when I worked in a sandwich shop called Baggin's in Tucson that had avocadoes on everything (my kind of sandwich shop!). For safety, you can always use a folded up kitchen towel in your hand to hold the avocado if you're worried about cutting yourself. It really helps.

Funny you blogged this! Just yesterday, the NY Times featured a plantain peeler invented by a retired janitor who eventually started his own company. Great story. :)

I almost do the same thing.

Jeni, I avoid the knife thing by making one more cut. I suppose it isn't perfectly safe.

I cut in half and twist just like the above. However, holding the half that has the seed, I cut the flesh in half again. One side will twist off just like before. Then with one quarter the flesh still on the seed, I've found that I can get ahold of enough of the seed to just pull it off without 'smushing' the remainder.

I LOVE avocadoes! Good ones aren't easy to find in Indiana. :o)

TrT

When I do guac I like to have a lot of avo chunks, so once it's halved and the seed is out, I slice it through to the skin (without actually cutting the skin) in squares, then scoop it out with a spoon. I get nice diced avocado that way. I think i must have seen that on iron chef or something once.

That's SOME knife, Elise, all for a little avocado! ;) I'm partial to this little guy, same concept but less risk of lethality!

I have tried this method, but I always have a hard time getting the pit off the knife. How can it easily be removed from the knife?

Elise, just had to say - great pictures! Love the lighting.

I never go through the skin and use a big spoon to separate the flesh from the peel, but I'm also usually making squared-off chunks and not wedges out of the avocado.

Peeling AFTER cutting into wedges: So smart, so simple! I've been cross-cutting the flesh while IN the peel - not as pretty nor as easy. THANKS!

I'm really amazed that there are so many methods for removing an avocado pit with knives and special tools and whatever. And all these years ignorant me has been pulling out the pit by using my fingernails.
keep on cookin' :-)
Richard

I use a spoon to scoop out the avocado whole after I use the dangerous knife method to remove the pit. It works awesome and I don't have to spend two hours trying to pull peels off slices of avocado. I can also make the slices fancier too :)

I usually cut into the avacado pit sideways along the line of the original cut, away from my body and arm (keeping my fingers down in case somthing happens. Then I use the knife to pry the pit out but grabbing the knife handle and turning the sharp part of the blade up and the pit comes along for the ride. That way even if I didn't get the knife into the pit tightly the pit still rotates and is loose.

I have been doing it very similarly for a while but what i do instead of cutting the slices out of the skin i use a spoon and scoope the whole avacado out of the skin (it comes out in one piece) and then slice it however you want afterwards.

Hi Pelin - what a lovely avocado salad, thanks for sharing! I usually just squeeze some lemon juice into an avocado half, peel still on, and use a spoon to scoop out and eat the avocado flesh. This is still my favorite way to eat an avocado.

Hi Caroline - I think it depends on the avocado you have. I find that with thick peels, it is easier to slice first, then peel.

Hi Kris - yes, one must be careful with this method.

Hi Portia - we've done it that way too, and it works. For some reason though, we always come back to the whack method.

Hi Teddi - If the cutting board method works for you, great. I find that the avocado will totter to much on the board and that I get more control by holding it.

Hi Lauren - thank you for your fabulous kitchen towel suggestion. I've added it to the instructions above.

Hi Carolyn - will have to look into the plantain peeler story, thank you.

Hi Todd - that works too, thanks!

Hi Friedapple - sometimes we dice it in the peel as well.

Hi Alanna - boy, they think of a tool for everything! Thanks for the link.

Hi John - to get the pit off the knife I either 1) shake it, right into the garbage pan, or 2) scrape the knife on the side of the cutting board to dislodge the pit.

Less hazardous way. Use a 5" paring knife to halve the avocado. Lay the knife flat on the open surface of the half with the pit, and push the knife's edge barely into the pit. Slowly rotate the knife backward to lift the pit out; the knife pivots mostly on the outside hide. Little damage is done to my hand if something slips. If the pit resists too much, then the avocado is not ripe enough.

I recommend holding the avocado with a tea towel when you whack it. Much safer.

To remove the pit from the knife, hold the knife in one hand with the tip on your cutting board. Use 2 fingers from your other hand to push down on the pit from above the knife.

I do the knife/whack thing, too, and haven't yet managed to cut the upper part of my left hand off. I love the dressing-in-the-pit-hollow thing, and the other day tried mixing some shoyu and wasabi and putting it in the hollow. Good stuff, a little like avocado maki w/o the rice.

i've been cutting avocadoes the right way for years and never once have i had to whack it... all u needa do is gently put the tip of the blade into the seed and wiggle it around side to side till the seed is loose and automatically falls out... it's much prettier this way as well...

I always slice into two pieces, then take the seed out without trying to cut my hand off, then I slice the two into four sections. After that the avacado peels so easy! Then slice into further segments after peeled.

An easier way to remove the seed from the knife instead of shaking, pulling, nudging etc.: Reach around the top of the knife and pinch the base of the blade near the seed (your palm is safely around the dull side. The seed will gently pop right off, and your fingers won't move because they're tightly pinching the opposite sides of your blade.

Thank you Alton Brown for this lovely technique. :-)

P.S. He also advocates the tea towel holding method and using a large serving spoon to scoop. Much cleaner, slightly less fun than my previous scooping tool: my hands. :-P

I used the knife/whack method at my first job at Togo's. It's best to use a serrated knife, it has a better grip which,=less danger. To get the pit off we would gently bang the handle of the knife on the counter over a garbage can. The pit falls right in. I still use this method.

Ok I watched this on tv. and the guy did everything the same except he didn't cut the avocado into slices - he took a table spoon and like scooped it all out into one big peice, all nice & easy - no mess.

I am another casualty of the knife wacking method. Three stiches on both sides of my hand and six hours in the emergency room changed my mind. If the avocado is very ripe you can squeeze the seed out with very little damage to the avacado.

Why all the whacking and peeling and scooping? You can get the avacado meat out in a fraction of the time if you're not worried about it coming out in slices. Simply cut the avacado in half (across the hemisphere - the opposite way from shown here) and twist it open. One end will have the seed in it, the other won't. Just turn the avacado over whatever bowl you're using and squeeze it. The meat will squish out of the skin leaving next to nothing in the peel. For the end with the seed in it, just squeeze slowly until the seed pops out into your hand, then squeeze the meat out into the bowl. No whacking, no spooning, no time at all.

Great comments and suggestions here! Living in the "Avocado capital of the World" has taught me that there are several different types of avocado. Some, like Haas especially, have the thick skin, so the technique of dicing it in the peeling works well. Others, like the Bacon or the Fuerte(yum!) have a much softer and fragile peel. Those you have to be more careful with, and sometimes you can peel them pretty easily using just your fingers (after halving and de-seeding.) Often times we slice the avocado into wedges rather than halving them. We can use one, or two little wedges at a time, depending on what we're doing. We love our avocados on our morning toast. We butter the toast, then put a slice or two of cheese (something white and creamy; we get "quesadilla cheese" at our local Mexican Market) then the avocado sliced up, then topped with salt and pepper. Oh my! So yummy, and fits right in with our So-Cal lifestyle!

I always hit it with the knife.. you just have to hit it with the long part, and not the point. I see no way you could possibly slice your hand up if you use the long end of a knife, and not the point. *goes to the fridge to eat some avacado*

My proven technique if all I want to do is make a guacamole is toss my aguacates into the old microwave oven and heat'em up. After about 30 seconds or so I pull'em out, jab a hole in one and squeeze it out like a tube of toothpaste. In all it really takes just about a minute is empty an avocado.

I am currently nursing an avocado injury. Sliced through the tendon, artery and nerve in my index finger. Had one operation to repair the nerve and having the tendon done tomorrow. I tried pitting the avocado with the half sitting in my hand - how stupid is that, I can hear you say. It went right through the avocado and straight through my hand, rendering my index finger completely useless.

Still, great recipe for avocado. Pan-seared tuna steaks with avocado and vine-ripened tomato salsa. Chop the avocado and tomatoes into chunks, mix with lemon juice, extra virgin olive oil, pepper and salt. Serve with minute-fried fresh tuna steak. Beautiful. Blood dressing optional.

I started adding cream cheese to my recipie at first just for the flavor but for some reason it keeps the guacamole from browning even if you leave it uncoverd for hours in the fridge.

I slice the avocado in half, then just use the tip of the knife to gently wedge the pit out. Stick it in the bottom of the pit and push upwards and outwards... it will come out, and no danger of slashing one's hand open :)

I just use the spoon to scoop it out, i'ts not that hard.I use 2 ava.1/2 cup good salsa,1 jalapeno finly choped,2 teaspoons lemon juice.salt to taste.my friends just love it.even ones that didn't even like it to begin with.

The easist way is to cut as shown above, remove pit and PEEL the skin away with your fingers. you will get a perfect 1/2 avacodo to use for slicing very nice for display prior to eating (besides making guac out of it) and works nice for thin slices on sandwiches or garnish. YUM!

I think the way shown here is easiest. although you do have to be careful at the knife part,its very easy.

i have never had a avocado accident! I guess from looking at other comments, i'm lucky.

By the way,does anyone have tips on keeping the avocado from browning?

Browning comes from oxidation, or exposure to air. the best way to keep the avocados from browning once cut open is to wrap them in plastic wrap. If you make guacamole, cover it with plastic wrap so that none of the guac is exposed to air. Squeezing a little lemon juice over a just cut avocado will help as well. ~Elise

I've also been using a sharp knife to remove the seed too (happy I got that right). Recently I learnt an excellent way of peeling the skin. A small drinking glass inserted from the bottom of half an avo, sliding up to the top. This will remove most of the avocado meat, cleanly, quickly and ready to slice however you want. (You can also get the dregs out with a spoon and eat as you go... mmmmm)

Nick Bradley, Don't feel bad. Last week I severed the tendon in my left thumb while pitting an avocado. I had to get surgery (my first ever) to repair it. My brother went online and found evidence of several other avocado related injuries (including your posting) to help me feel better about myself. The alluring, dangerous avocado claims yet another victim....