Pitting avocado

by Gail
(Canada)

The footnote of your guacamole recipe says you find it so hard to remove the pit. It should not be. Here's how: cut avocado in half from stem end to bottom. Hold the avocado side with pit in your hand, pit up, and with sharp knife in your other hand, smack the blade down on the pit--just enough to embed it slightly into the pit. Twist the knife slightly and the pit comes with it. Release the pit from knife safely by pulling knife over sink edge and pit falls off.

To slice avocado you, once again, do not need fancy equipment. Just hold the pitted half of avocado, face up, in your hand and with your paring knife run nice even slices from top to bottom, right down to the skin. Scoop them out with a tablespoon, running it smoothly inside the skin.

I've done this for decades, but lately I see it being done on TV cooking programs. So glad; nobody has to learn it the hard way :-)

From Karen:
Thanks Gail, but I still have a difficult time hitting the pit hard enough that the knife actually stays in.

Thanks for the tips.