Skip to main content
DEAL WATCH: Keurig K-Express | 22% off $69.99

Keurig has changed the face of coffee, and snagging one of these for less than $70 is a solid deal. Read Review

BUY NOW
Ovens & Ranges

Can this avocado hack really ripen your avocado in 10 minutes?

Or is this hack too good to be true?

Credit:

Recommendations are independently chosen by Reviewed's editors. Purchases made through the links below may earn us and our publishing partners a commission.

When it comes to avocados, I am no amateur. You might be able to guess that from the dancing avocado painting that hangs over my kitchen sink, or by the way I can remove a pit with a sharp knife and flick of the wrist. And not to brag, but I have a sixth sense for when those bad boys are perfectly ripe. It’s a gift.

What I don’t have, unfortunately, is patience. When I buy an avocado, I want to eat it right away! Setting it down on the counter to ripen for a few days is not my idea of a good time.

So when I heard about this “avocado hack” that promised to ripen an avocado in 10 minutes, I was all in. “Don’t mind if I avoca-do!” I said to myself. Unfortunately, no one was nearby to hear my brilliant pun, but still I persevered. I went to the grocery store, bought two rock hard avocados and one slightly softer (but still underripe) one. Time to put this hack to the test!

I preheated the oven to 200°F, wrapped a rock hard avocado in aluminum foil, and put it in the oven. I waited. Eagerly.

avocado in foil
Credit: Reviewed.com / Jackson Ruckar

For this hack, wrap a whole (not a half) avocado tightly in foil.

After 10 minutes, I removed the avocado from the oven. The aluminum foil was barely even warm to the touch. I unwrapped the avocado—it was ever-so-faintly warm—and gave it a squeeze.

Reader, The avocado hadn’t softened noticeably at all. It was difficult to get my chef’s knife through the tough green flesh. The pit didn’t want to come out of the fruit, and it left the pit’s outer layer behind when I tried to force it. The hard, raw avocado I cut into for comparison felt essentially exactly the same as the cooked one.

underripe avocado
Credit: Reviewed.com / Jackson Ruckar

A rock-hard avocado is still rock-hard after 10 minutes in the oven.

Discouraged, I figured it was worth a try to see if the riper softer avocado saw any success with the hack. So into the oven it went, tightly wrapped in foil. This one did seem a bit softer upon removal, giving a little bit when squeezed and allowing a knife to glide easily through. I was able to get the pit fully out of the avocado. It didn’t taste good, though. It had the softness of a near-ripe avocado, but the sour, green taste of an underripe one.

A disappointment for sure, although not totally unexpected. The hack takes advantage of the ripening gases an avocado releases when heated, which are trapped close to the avocado by the aluminum foil, thus theoretically speeding up ripening. I’m not sure why it didn’t work for me, but The Kitchn found that it took 60 minutes in the oven for a hard avocado to soften, and that it never fully developed the flavor and creaminess of a truly, naturally ripe avocado.

riper avocado
Credit: Reviewed.com / Jackson Ruckar

A riper avocado softens a bit after 10 minutes in the oven, but not enough to make much of a difference.

The verdict: Avoca-don’t even bother with this hack; it just doesn’t work. An avocado that ripens in 10 minutes is a beautiful dream, but an oven and some aluminum foil is no substitute for time and patience.

Up next