Mango Prep and Tools: How Do You Prep a Mango?

[andiesenji]

It wouldn't work on the giant mangoes I get at the Mexican market and I doubt it would work on the little "golden" mangoes, but for average sized ones it might be helpful for people who have difficulty holding knives. I use my thin-bladed flexible boning knife which is very, very sharp and will, if I am not careful, cut through the seed. I then do the criss-cross cuts, invert the skin and slice the cubes off the skin with a blunt butter knife or spreader.

On the other hand, I do have one of the pineapple slicers and it works great and saves me a lot of time. I did not think it would really work when I first saw one but after seeing it demonstrated at our local fair and being allowed to try it myself, I decided it might be handy, and so it is.

Of course, I love and collect gadgets and might get one just for fun!

[a geek]

Wow, what a bad idea. The worst to me is the thought that this would require somewhat firm/unripe mangoes. Besides, it takes all of 20 seconds to cut up a mango.

I tend to avoid OXO/Good Grips products as well. Their products tend to become completely unusable more often than any others I own even though they carry a hefty price premium.

[sp1187]

Ok all you mango eaters, when pitting a mango, what's the trick?

It seems like most times I "guess" wrong to which way the pit is running and waste alot of the flesh.

1).Is there a way to tell before I start cutting where to start cutting?

2). Have any of you used one of the commercial mango pitters you can buy and what is your opinion of it?

thanks.

[cathrynapple]

The pit always runs vertically. The fruit follows the shape of the pit, and it's very flat and tapered, so if you start your knife it the top almost in the center, you can jsut guide the knife around the flat sides of the pit. I think thsi comes naturally if you've spent lots of time around mangoes.

I think you'd get more flesh off with a knife than the mango pitter.

[SuzySushi]

My husband perfected another way of pitting mangoes -- but they have to be perfectly ripe for this method. With a small, sharp knife, cut around the mango crosswise. Now take the two halves and twist in opposite directions. Voila! One half will pop off without the pit; use the knife to neatly trim the pit from the other half.

[Doodad]

As the other poster said the pit is the same shape as the fruit. I cut a slice all the way to the seed at the centerline (longwise) of the fruit. Then, with that as a guide cut and rotate the fruit along the seed so I get as much as possible in each half. A boning knife is great here. Then it is up to you to either cut in slices, or in a hatch pattern and turn the skin inside out, slicing away the fruit.

Pitter is a waste of time and money.

[cathrynapple]

Suzy, do you find that much mango flesh adheres to the stringy parts of the pit and is pulled out still attached with your method?

(I'd try it, but there's no hope of finding a ripe mango in Indiana right now. )

[SuzySushi]

Suzy, do you find that much mango flesh adheres to the stringy parts of the pit and is pulled out still attached with your method?

(I'd try it, but there's no hope of finding a ripe mango in Indiana right now. )

←

Usually not, but it depends on the variety of mango. We only buy mangoes when they're in season locally, and usually wait till we find the more buttery varieties such as Keitt and Manzano. They have very few strings.

[austramerica]

As children, growing up, we used to just eat them off the tree...

[DCP]

I really like the pitter (KitchenAid, I believe) we have. It is an indulgence, but particularly a time-saver when doing things like mango lassi fro-yo or sorbet. Just line it up with the mango lengthwise and push down. When done right, it gets all but perhaps 1 cubic inch of flesh (at the bottom and top corners).

[Chris Hennes]

It's funny to me to look back over this topic: it seems most people are pretty skeptical about this thing. I got one yesterday and I love it. I'm ludicrously lazy, and this allows me to make a mango smoothie-ready in about 10 seconds. Those who just use knives must be handier with them than I am, I can't do any better than this gizmo, and it takes five times longer. You give up a tiny bit of space in your kitchen drawer, but I've got space to spare so that wasn't really a concern for me.

[emannths]

If I'm making mango smoothies (or anything else where the size and shape of the pieces don't matter), I just cut the sides off and scoop the flesh out with a spoon. A few extra slices at the seed liberate the remaining flesh. If I want cubes of mango, I peel it with a vegetable peeler, then cut the sides of and dice it up. This page describes it in pictures (second technique).

With the exception of people that avoid knifework (either because of medical conditions or because they're young), what's the appeal? For people that like this thing, what part of the process does it speed up?

[Doodad]

We love mangos (even the dog) so we have gotten pretty skilled at skinning them. I cut the sides whether for cubes, crescents or fruit. The seed is fought over for gnawing. The dog wins sometimes.

[Jaymes]

I first learned how to cut mangoes some forty years ago when I was living in the Philippines. And it's how our housegirl in Panama cut mangoes as well. Since we had two mango trees in our yard, we cut a lot of mangoes and, as far as I'm concerned anyway, it's still the best method I've seen, although I've never seen anyone else in the States do it.

Many sites advise you to cut your mango into two large halves, and then, one by one, hold each half in one hand and score the flesh down to the skin in a diamond pattern.

But then they advise you to turn the skin inside out, and slice off the diamonds.

Much much better is to take that scored half and, rather than turn it inside out, take a nice large spoon and, holding the mango half over a plate or bowl, scoop out all of your diamonds. They fall in nice cubes in one swoop, and an added bonus is that you get all the juice as well.

_________________________

Edited August 13, 2010 by Jaymes (log)

[dcarch]

I will be making a video of how I manage a mango without mess.

Give me a couple of days.

dcarch

[scubadoo97]

One needs to leave a little pulp around the seed since this is best enjoyed while gnawing over the sink.

[dcarch]

Spinning off from the other mango thread.

Mangoes are heavenly. Except opening one can be messy and slippery, especially ripe ones.

How do you do it?

dcarch

[emannths]

If I want chunks/cubes to eat, I use a vegetable peeler and then cut the flesh off the pit, like this. If I just need the flesh for a smoothie or something where shape doesn't matter, I first cut the lobes off the pit, then scoop the flesh out of the skin with a spoon.

[jackal10]

Cut in half either side of the flat stone

Score the flesh both ways into 1cm cubes

Press in the middle of the skin side - Sort of turn it inside out, so the skin is concave instead of convex

Pick off the cubes

[MelissaH]

Both emannths and jackal10 describe what I do. But I'll add that after we cut off the cheeks and then take off the prime meridian/international date line, what's left on the pit is the cook's treat, to lean over the sink and slurp.

MelissaH

[DanM]

I like the OXO Mango Pitter. It leaves a little on the pit, but a quick chew takes care of that.

[ElsieD]

I agree with Dan. I finally bought one of those and they are a snap to use.

[andiesenji]

I like the OXO Mango Pitter. It leaves a little on the pit, but a quick chew takes care of that.

Me too! I bought the Oxo GG Mango splitter and it did a very fine job until it had an "accident" (The plastic melts if it happens to be on a counter and 'someone' places a pizzelle iron in front of it, plugs it in without noticing that the iron is touching the Oxo item.)

By the time the aroma of melting plastic alerted me, the splitter was a goner.

So I replaced it with the stainless steel model - couple of bucks more, just as easy to use.

And of course, it's a gadget and I love gadgets!

[annachan]

Small ones, I tend to peel it kind of like a banana and go for it. The larger ones, I tend to cut the two sides around the pit. I score the fleshy parts then flip it to get easy access. Then peel the skin of the pit part and eat the flesh attached.

[andiesenji]

You know, I should have remembered, when Fat Guy posted his photo of a grapefruit knife - I have a friend who uses one to dismember mangoes, then scrapes the pit with the serrated edge to recover as much pulp as possible.

She lives in OC (Lake Forest) and has two lovely mango trees that produces lots of huge fruits.

One is in its natural form and the other is espaliered along a 30-foot wall.

One is the commonly seen green/red/yellow variety and the other is a solid golden color, very sweet.