Mangoes are a tropical super-fruit, high in fiber and antioxidants, but their tough bitter skin and oddly shaped pit have flummoxed more than a few fruit lovers. Unlike peaches, avocados or other pit centered fruit, mangoes have a long flat pit that’s firmly attached to the flesh. Before you go cutting up a mango willy nilly, you have to divine which way the pit runs so you can cut around it. The best way to do this is to look for the narrow profile of the fruit (see photo above).
Once you’ve figured out your angle of attack, clear your mind and picture the long slender pit in the middle of the mango. Place your knife slightly right of center and slice off the right half of the fruit, trying to get as close to the pit as possible without actually hitting it. Then turn the mango around and repeat with the other half of the fruit. If you’re a lefty, just start with the left side instead.
Make one vertical slice and two horizontal slices, down to, but not through the skin. Now you’re faced with a choice. If you’re like me and want to dive maw first into that luscious fruit, you can splay out its succulent orange flesh and have at it. On the other hand, if you’re planning on serving the mango, or you have a more civilized sensibility, use a spoon to scoop each segment of the fruit out.
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I learned this when in Congo when I was in the Peace Corps. As far as I’m concerned, it’s the only way to peel a mango. Skip the spoon, though, and just eat the cubes off the skin, popped inside out, with your teeth.
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living in hawaii, i eat tons of mangoes, but always felt like i ended up wasting some of the sweet goodness, by not knowing how to cut correctly.
thanks for the mango peeling info!
If you want to max out you enjoyment you need to trace the pit with your knife once you have the two sides done. You get a mango donut cut the loop once and nosh away.
Yes, I agree, it is the best way to approach the Mango. I just cut one the other day but it wasn’t quite ripe enough. Now what’s the best way to test ripeness before cutting or for that matter, to ripen a mango?? Thanks!
Hi Christie,
You can tell if a mango is ripe by smell and feel. Green ones have a pine-like smell where as ripe ones are much sweeter in smell. You can also do some gentle prodding to tell if a mango is ripe, but be careful or you will bruise the fruit. As for getting them to ripen faster, put them in a paper bag along with a banana. Bananas emit a large amount of ethylene gas which accelerates the ripening process.
Hi. Are you referring to a particular variety of large mango? Maybe it’s just me, but I tend not to find the skin of several of the large ones I’ve eaten tough or bitter. Some have been, but I don’t think it’s across the board.
I tend not to cube them or scoop them out. I have to put it into context though: I spent a siginifcant part of my childhood in Nigeria. We got stuck right in. The large ones we cut as far as your 2nd pic above and then ate (with the skin or ate down to the skin, mostly ate the skin though)- and the small ones we either ate just like that or made a small incision with our teeth and sucked.
Nevertheless, your ‘Zen’ method is an interesting way of communing with the succulent fruit that is mango. Either way, as long as the optimum taste-ual enjoyment is gotten from it, then it’s all good.
I thank you for your post.
Some time ago my sister explained to me “how to eat a mango” “Naked in a bathtub with your lover” Still my favorite and least messy way!
That’s a delicious suggestion and one that I definitely wouldn’t be averse to trying myself.