The Best Guacamole Recipe - The Salty Marshmallow (2024)

FAQs

What do restaurants use to keep guacamole from turning brown? ›

Method #4: Press Plastic Wrap Against the Surface of the Guac. The technique: If air is the enemy, plastic wrap could act as a shield from oxygen exposure. For best results, spread the top of the surface flat so the wrap can get the most contact.

Next, add lime juice. Often an additional pop of citrus is all guac needs to come alive and taste better. If you still aren't happy with the taste, you can rely on mix-ins to jazz it up. Try adding cilantro, salsa, a diced jalapeno or serrano pepper, feta cheese, or a few dashes of hot sauce.

Beyond his staple ingredients of avocado, tomato, shallot, lime juice, and green chiles, Ramsay seasons his guacamole mixture with salt and pepper before finishing it off with a drizzle of olive oil and mashing it all together.

Cover the guacamole with water or lime juice.

When stored using these tips, you can keep your homemade guacamole looking fresh for up to 72 hours in the fridge. But if you plan on serving this to a crowd, I would plan on serving it the next day to be on the safe side.

I simply squeezed the juice from half a lemon over the surface of the prepared guacamole. I checked for browning after one hour, one-and-a-half hours, and two hours.

Editor's Tip: You may have heard a squirt of lemon or lime juice also keeps guacamole from browning. It's true—as long as you cover the entire surface of the dip with citrus juice.

Diana Kennedy all but forbids it in The Art Of Mexican Cooking, saying it “spoils the balance of flavors.” In Hugo Ortega's Street Foods Of Mexico, Ortega writes, “the secret to a good guacamole is to respect the avocado flavor and not drown it in lime juice” (he adds a scant 1/4 teaspoon for two large avocados).

Other seasonings and spices like paprika or cayenne can add a kick to standard guacamole. Crushed red pepper, cayenne, paprika, or even garlic powder can up the flavor in a store-bought guacamole and allow you to cater it to your own tastes.

Most people prefer to use sweet white onion in their guacamole recipe. Red or yellow onion tends to give the guacamole too strong of a garlic flavor.

Although adding mayonnaise to guacamole can be a divisive topic, plenty of people swear by it for its textural benefits. Blending just a little bit of mayo into your guacamole will help make it extra creamy and silky smooth for dipping or spreading.

Is it cheaper to make your own guacamole? ›

But the primary reason that you should make your own if you can is that it's much cheaper — about half the cost, in fact.

"The flesh of the avocado oxidizes quickly — much like a cut apple — which changes the color. The addition of citric acid, like from lime juice in your guac can help delay this process but will not completely prevent it," she says.

“Each panned guac gets sealed airtight with Saran Wrap,” he said. “Then it gets lidded, labeled and stored for later use. This process ensures freshness and prevents browning,” he continued.

When you store guacamole, there's a simple trick to keeping the goods from going brown. Put your guac in a bowl, pour lukewarm water over it and cover it tightly with a lid or plastic wrap, like Glad® Press'n Seal® before placing it in the fridge. When you're ready to enjoy it, simply pour the water off.

But as every guac fan knows, the stuff has a tendency to look nasty in a hurry, a problem only compounded when the product is made in advance. Fortunately for Wholly, the brand had already pioneered a high-pressure process that removes all the air from the container, so the batch doesn't oxidize and turn brown.

It is often made fresh when ordered sometimes at your table! If not, then lime juice or tomatoes are added which helps to keep it green, as does the old trick of keeping the avocado pits in the guacamole and covered so it stays fresh. Most guacamole is fresh made not something kept in the fridge for days.

“Each panned guac gets sealed airtight with Saran Wrap,” he said. “Then it gets lidded, labeled and stored for later use. This process ensures freshness and prevents browning,” he continued.

Coat with lemon or lime juice

Due to the citric acid, the browning process is significantly slowed. This is one of the more common, well-known methods for preserving cut avocados, but there's more where that came from.