Are there any foods you love but find yourself avoiding in your own kitchen due to hassle, mess, or unreliability? Granted, getting your hands dirty is par for the course in the kitchen. But some people would rather avoid the mischief, the mistakes that certain ingredients beget.
For me, that food is mangoes. Don’t get me wrong (not even for a second!), I love them. They’re sumptuous and velvety and sweet in a way that makes me feel like a kid again, but I sometimes—sometimes!—find them a bit messy. I have to be prepared when I eat a mango, you know? It's not an apple, for crying out loud. If I'm going to eat a mango, I have to lay down a cloth towel and roll up my sleeves and carve out 10 minutes for the sucker. Mangos require my attention.
But what if they didn’t? What if there were a way to cut and de-pit a mango in 10 seconds instead of 10 minutes? You’d jump, wouldn’t you?
Behold: a video making the rounds on social media this week of a disembodied hand showing a quite stunning mango (one whose skin is a sunset ombré of dusty red to bright ochre) who's the boss.
The trick appears quite simple. All one has to do is hold the mango horizontally (hotdog, not hamburger) and slice along its vertical axis. From there, it’s a simple swish and flick, à la Hermione Granger: You twist one half of the flesh around the pit and ease it off.
The internet, as is wont to do, became incensed. Here are a few of my favorite reactions:
Even Padma Lakshmi chimed in on her Instagram: "Have you ever tried to cut a mango like this??"
Many others took pause with the purported hack:
Most mangoes—at least the varieties that are most popular in the United States—wouldn’t, couldn’t peel this way. They stick too tightly to their pit to separate that easily. Judging by the video, the effectiveness of the hack seemed more a question of varietal specificity.
We reached out to Karen B. Caplan, the President & CEO of Frieda's Specialty Produce, to see if she could identify the mango at hand. “My best guess is that this is the Nam Dok Mai variety,” she told us.
A Nam Dok Mai mango originated in Thailand. It’s smaller than the average American supermarket variety and tends to be sweeter, chalkier in flavor. It’s more elongated (like a chile pepper) than it is globular (like a tomato).
Nam Dok Mais are but one of many mango cultivars, however. Peep this exhaustive Wikipedia list to gauge the fruit’s many cousins, or take a look at this chart:
As for now, the exact identity of the mango and the efficacy of the hack remains in question, but we’d love to hear your thoughts.
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Written by: Valerio Farris
Popular on Food52
36 Comments
If you try this, just be careful not to split the skin, especially if you’re holding it while slicing!
However, many years later, as an adult, the first time I bought and cut open a mango, the aroma instantly transported me back to those trees in Hawaii. I was fascinated at how the sense of smell could trigger a strong memory!
Count forward a few years to a vacation in the Caribbean, when I got an odd very red and very itchy rash on my left cheek and around my left eye. Couldn't figure it out, antihistimines did nothing to clear it up, but a course of steroids seemed to help. Then after arriving home the rash reappeared around my mouth and chin, which were bright red, very swollen, and very itchy as were both hands. My family doctor had no idea, but I mentioned it to my sister who said, "did you have any mango? Don't you remember when we lived in Hawaii and i got a terrible rash from mango skin? It's got something in it that's similar to poison ivy!" No, I didn't remember, but I did a little research and put two and two together: I had eaten several mangoes directly out of the skin, holding them in my left hand, and then later on, I'd lie down to read, propping my head in my left hand (hence the left cheek and eye area). Just before flying home, I bought two lovely ripe mangoes. On the the plane, the customs paperwork warned about no agricultural products, but I wasn't about to throw my prizes away, so I opened them up with a plastic knife and slurped the perfectly ripe flesh from the skins, much to the amusement of the flight attendants. Of course that explained the swollen lips and chin and the rash on my hands as well!
No doubt about it, I have a severe allergy to mango skin. I will occasionally buy them but only if I put plastic bags over my hands and don't touch the little beasties, and I wear plastic gloves while peeling them.
Just a heads-up to anyone who has severe reactions to poison ivy - watch out for mangoes!
Again I wish to apologize for being this person:)
I didn't know there are mangoes that can be eaten with the skin. It makes sense that they're small, but what about the seed? Is it edible too?
"May Cause an Allergic Reaction
Mango skin contains urushiol, a cocktail of organic chemicals also found in poison ivy and poison oak (12Trusted Source).
Urushiol can promote an allergic response in some people, especially those with sensitivities to poison ivy and other urushiol-heavy plants.
Be aware that consuming mango skin may cause an itchy rash and swelling of your skin (13Trusted Source)." (https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/mango-skin#drawbacks)
Quite pretty with glossy leaves!
Those Thai mangoes, which can be found in Asian Grocery store IMO are perfect for another way of eating, especially when unripe -- with a sprinkle of Mexican Taijin - the way they're often sold in India, sliced thin and cut into fronds using a variety known as totapyri/Kilimooku .
https://www.instagram.com/p/B0ejEZoF6xf/
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