Here are the two best ways to slice a mango. One involves simple knife skills, and the other involves a gadget.
• The Knife Skills Solution: With the skin still on, slice the wider, flat sides off the mango as close to the pit as possible, then cut the flesh into squares, just short of the skin, so be careful not to pierce through. Using a table or butter knife (to be safe) and cradling the fruit in your hands so you can feel where the knife is, slice a grid pattern into the flesh. Then turn the piece inside out and a nice, neat, network of mango cubes will be poking out into the world awaiting your attention. At this point you can either slice them off, or eat them off the skin. As for the thin ribs of flesh still on the pit, slice them off and cut them in a similar way, although you may not need to do a grid, more like a row of short hash marks (between four and six).
• The Gadget Solution: With one swift push of the Oxo Mango Splitter, the guessing-game out of seeding and slicing a mango is history. No more sticky fingers; no more wasted sweet meat. At that point you can slice the skin away, or use the method outlined above to harvest the flesh.
I usually cut them up the first way (with a knife); Alton Brown advocates first peeling it with a veg peeler, then poking a corn holder into one end, standing it upright on a cutting board, and using a knife to slice the flesh away from the pit.
Though not a mango-cutting technique persay, I find Atulfo mangoes (the smaller, flatter and yellower ones) easier to cut. The pit is flatter and more predictably shaped. It also lies down on a plate or cutting board more readily. And no hairy fibres either!
I actually have one of these Oxo splitters and once you get the hang of it they work REALLY well. The only thing I would say is that if the mango is too ripe, it really doesn't work well - the blade just isn't sharp enough. Stick with the knife at that point.
the knife skills solution also works for avocados
Or of course you could just eat them in the traditional way advised in Australia - in the bath! (Jokingly, of course)
Well, now in addition to having bad "design" sense (thanks JPup), I am discovering that I am buying bum mangos. ISTM that the pit is not always dead center - I find mangos very difficult to cut and rely on my nanny to do this for my kids and leave some leftovers for me.
Back to my yurt.
Great knives! My fiancee bought me a set. Sanelli==rocks.
for an overripe mango one does not even need a knife to cut - one just bite into it .
for a ripe mango one can also peel away the skin. the vegetable peeler is a good alternative for one who do not have basic knife skills.
Exellent advise! I always have to prepair myself mentally before I decide to slice up a mango but not anymore!!! Thanx
I stuff my mangoes through a gas driven wood chipper outside. If you do try this method, make sure you wear ear muffs because it can get pretty loud.
we just got one of those devices for work -- we have a mango-plantain salsa that we have to prep every other day (about 8 L at a time); that tool saves a ton of time.
Thanks, the knife description works very well! My dog is also very happy that I might make mangoes more often now, she loves them (very healthy for dogs too...)
if you're very sensitive to poison ivy, you may want to avoid eating the flesh right off of the skin and pit. mango skins and pits have a similar toxin in them. most people don't have any problem with it, but after years of suffering itchy, blistered lips (i REALLY like mangoes), i was very happy to learn that i could just eat flesh that is carefully cut and avoid the rash.
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Don't use a knife on the halves after you slice and score them (or don't even bother scoring them). Just eat them out of the mango with a teaspoon or spoon. The curved spoon gets more of the fruit that way. Then get a fork for the pit, and press the pit between the two middle tines of the fork to secure it. You can then peel the remaining skin off it and eat the remaining fruit flesh like a lollipop. It works, although depending on the size of the pit and how firmly you plant it in the fork, it can still get messy. This is the way we've always done it in the Philippines, where the mangoes are far superior to anything I've ever tasted in 20 years here in NYC.
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