I adore mangos with a deep passion, but have yet to find *any * way to peel them and cut the fruit off the pit without causing a hideous mess and getting my hands well marinated in mango juice. And yet I see neatly sliced mango at salad bars, so I know it’s possible. Can anyone instruct me on how to make this delicious fruit accessible without all the mess?
The thing about mangoes is the pit runs longitudinally down the long axis of the fruit. So, put the stem end towards you, stand it up on its edge, and with a very sharp knife cut away the flesh on either side of the pit (a long, flat cut, alternating heel-and-toe with the blade to seperate fore and aft. You should, after doing this, have two mango halves (and you can trim the top and bottom). Now, with the skin still attached, make your cuts through the flesh, stopping when you feel resistance from the skin. Then pop that sucker out – take the scored mango half in both hands and invert it. You may now cut away the flesh, which, if you’ve not mishandled it too badly, will be intact, neat, and with a minimum of mess.
Mango’s are delicious, but I like you can’t prepare them without making a juicy mess.
I start with False_God suggestion, and cut one half away from either side of the seed.
But i don’t score the flesh and pop it out that way. Instead, i cut each half in half again, lengthwise. Then you have four long pieces. You can then take a sharp, flat knife and run it between the skin and the flesh, giving four skinless, seedless pieces of juicy heaven.
Then don’t forget to peel of the band of skin from the left-over center part, then gnaw the remaining disk of mango pulp from the seed.
Depending upon how ripe the mango is, I’ve had a lot of success peeling the mango with a vegetable peeler, the same kind you’d use for a cucumber or a carrot. Sometimes, it takes two passes to get down to the “meat.” Then, I just cut slices off each side of the pit. Finally, I stand it on end, and carve the remaining flesh away from the pit.
Of course, if the mango has gotten so ripe that it’s a bit squishy, the peeler routine doesn’t work very well at all.
Thanks, guys! I have another ripe mango that’s in need of eating, so tomorrow I will try, try again and see if I can do it without taking a mango bath this time. Why are some things that are so delicious so difficult to prepare?
Hmm. In one of the BBC Hercule Poirot productions, he cuts a meridian around the mango with a knife, separates the pit from the flesh by working a spoon around, through the meridian, then scores each de-pitted half into a grid. Then invert, and cut off the cubes. I have tried this, but the mangos we get here are gigantic and stringy and tough, and it didn’t work well at all. Probably takes practice.