Dealing with Mangoes

Mangoes are sweet and juicy and full of nutrition. They are an excellent source of vitamin A and flavonoids like beta-carotene, alpha-carotene, and beta-cryptoxanthin. Fresh mango is also a very rich source of potassium and a very good source of vitamin B6, vitamin C, and vitamin E. However, they can be tricky to deal with, leaving a consumer wondering if the treat is worth the work.

Because mangoes come in a wide variety of colours, including green, red, yellow, and orange, colour is not the best way to determine ripeness. Sniff for a fragrant fruity odour at the stem end, or squeeze very gently to detect a firm yet yielding feel under your fingers. Keep unripe mangoes at room temperature.

There are a number of ways to prepare a mango. Googling "how to cut a mango" yields 349,000 results, with many photo tutorials and videos. Here are my favourite ways to prepare this fruit for eating:

To make the prettiest cubes, perhaps for a fruit salad, cut the mango in half lengthwise around the central pit, much like you would cut an avocado. With a little help from your knife, remove the pit, then score the flesh on both halves in a grid pattern, being careful not to cut through the skin. Turn each half inside out by pushing the center of the skin up from the back so the cubes stand out and cut them off the skin.

Alton Brown on Food TV recommends peeling your mango with a vegetable peeler, then using a corn-on-the-cob holder to hold the mango upright while carving all the flesh off.

You can see variations on both of the above techniques, with pictures, on the Start Cooking blog.

My favourite technique is a bit different. If your mango is nicely ripe, you can peel it by hand. I use a knife to trim a bit of skin off each of the tips of the fruit, then peel the skin off, much like peeling a banana. I find that one direction often works better than the other, so if the mango isn't peeling, I rotate it and try the other way. Once the skin's off, I use a knife to carefully carve the fruit off the pit. It is messy and the results aren't tidy cubes, but it seems to get the maximum amount of fruit off both skin and pit and the mango still tastes delicious.

Enjoy!