I wanted to see if anyone has tried to pickle avocados?
Mostly I am interested to use only vinegar, and/or salt.
Best Answer
I've never heard of it being done and I can't imagine why you'd want to try. An avocado is 70-80% water and 15% fat. That means you would basically be making pickled fat.
Compare to cucumbers and peppers which are both in the range of 0.1 to 0.2% fat, and much firmer than even an unripe avocado when raw.
I'm sure that it would be safe as long as it's done properly and the pH is under 4.6, and the acidity would kill or slow down the enzymes enough to prevent it from turning black. But I don't think it would be edible, even if you added oil to the mix. We are biologically hardwired to perceive sour fat as being rancid, and unlike certain pickled meats, there's no umami in there to compete with that sensation.
If you feel you must try this, at least start with an unripe avocado and see what it's like after a few days. A ripe avocado would almost certainly disintegrate in a pickling brine.
I've been fermenting for quite a while (everything from sauerkraut and kimchi to Indian-spiced grated carrots and kohlrabi spears with dill), and my two cents is that the flavor of fermented pickles is vastly (vastly!) superior to that of vinegar pickles. Fermented pickles are indeed fruitier and more complex. When I have the first taste of something I've just fermented for the first time, I'm almost always surprised and pleased to the point of involuntary smiling and "mmm"-ing. It's just pure joy.
Most importantly for me, fermented vegetables taste more like vegetables than those pickled in vinegar. With vinegar pickles, I now find the vinegar totally overpowering, even just when opening the jar. I feel like I'm eating processed food. Fermented vegetables taste closer to fresh.
Another fun thing is that fermented pickles continue to mature with time. I usually keep my ferments at room temperature for one to two weeks, then move them to the fridge. The cold slows the fermentation way, way down, but it doesn't stop it completely. If you make 5 pounds of sauerkraut and consume it slowly over, say, two months, you can bet that your last serving of it will taste quite different from your first. But it's always good.
It is absolutely worth the extra effort to go the fermented route. It's an adventure in deliciousness. Here's a site with some great recipe ideas: http://www.picklemetoo.com/recipes/.
Through experimentation, I got the answer. The answer is rice vinegar, a little sugar, a little salt (not so much salt and sugar as to make the vinegar seem like "seasoned rice vinegar" as for sushi, just a pinch of each) and time. After two days in the fridge the sliced fresh jalapenos mellow a bit, but they seem even a little crunchier than when they were first sliced. To me they are superior in every way to any jarred jalapenos I've ever had. After four days, they seem more like "pickled" jalapenos and start to lose some of the crunch that makes them so nice. I suspect that they might use a different vinegar, but the slightly seasoned rice vinegar works just fine.
Best Answer
I've never heard of it being done and I can't imagine why you'd want to try. An avocado is 70-80% water and 15% fat. That means you would basically be making pickled fat.
Compare to cucumbers and peppers which are both in the range of 0.1 to 0.2% fat, and much firmer than even an unripe avocado when raw.
I'm sure that it would be safe as long as it's done properly and the pH is under 4.6, and the acidity would kill or slow down the enzymes enough to prevent it from turning black. But I don't think it would be edible, even if you added oil to the mix. We are biologically hardwired to perceive sour fat as being rancid, and unlike certain pickled meats, there's no umami in there to compete with that sensation.
If you feel you must try this, at least start with an unripe avocado and see what it's like after a few days. A ripe avocado would almost certainly disintegrate in a pickling brine.