Mangos
Have you ever canned or dehydrated mangos? I had not until this week. I got a real deal on a box of mangos from Costco and decided I wanted to preserve some of their goodness for another day.
I have chopped them and frozen them. I’ve also made mango syrup. But I’ve never prepared them for “long term” storage until now. So, with 6 fresh mangos in hand I decided to do some canning. My first dilemma was how to cut the fruit. For those of you who have not cut a mango, their seed is very large which makes cutting them difficult.
Finally I stood the first one on end and carefully sliced, just off center from top to bottom.
This seemed to work as I didn’t cut into the seed. I turned it 180 degrees and sliced the other side. This gave me two sections of fruit in the skin and a large “slice” from the middle with the seed, skin and a whole lot of flesh clinging to the seed.
Decisions, decisions ... How do I get the flesh out of the skin cups. I decided that cutting the mango the same way I cut avocados might work. Carefully I ran my knife blade from top to bottom, being careful not to cut through the skin. I did this over and over until there were slices. Then I rotated the fruit 90 degrees and made similar cuts and there were dices.
Now, how to remove those dices from the skin. I decided to try and turn the skin inside out so I could remove the flesh.
What do you know, it looks kinda; funny, don’t you think? At least the flesh is exposed and can be easily cut from the skin.
Once all the mangos were diced and removed from their skin I needed to make a lite syrup to can them in. I turned to my favorite canning cookbook for the syrup recipe and measured the ingredients 1 ¼ cups sugar and 5 ½ cups water.
This had to be simmered until the sugar dissolved. That took around 7 minutes with constant stirring.
The fruit is diced and sitting in the syrup, The jars are clean and staying warm.
I grabbed my canning tools
My lids are in a bowl of water that was boiling when I poured it over them.
I put the mangos in syrup on the stove and brought them up to a simmer. Not a boil, just a gentle simmer.
When the fruit is warmed through The processing begins. remove a warm jar from the dishwasher, place a canning funnel in the jar, and carefully ladle warm fruit into the jar, being careful to maintain ½ inch head space. Pour warm syrup into the jar to cover the fruit. Remove air bubbles from the jar, and top off the syrup if necessary.
Wipe the rim and threads of the jar with a clean paper towel that was dipped in warmed white vinegar. Remove a lid from the bowl and center it on the jar. Then place a ring on the jar and tighten it to finger tight, lower the jars into the water bath canner which is simmering. When all the jars are in the canner, the water level should be 2 inches above the top of the jars. If it isn't, add boiling water to reach the 2 inch level.
Bring the water in the canner up to a boil, place the lid on it, and set your timer for 10 minutes, the time the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving says is right for my altitude.
When the timer buzzes, turn off the heat, remove the pan lid, and let the whole thing sit for 5 minutes. Then move each jar to a folded towel in a warm spot to allow them to cool for 24 hours.
After 12 hours remove the rings, check to see if the lids are secure, and wash off any hard water spots. Then label the jars and they are ready to go into the pantry after an additional 12 hours.
Please note, I am not an expert on food preservation. This is simply what I did to preserve the mangos. For more complete information and recipes please check the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving.
If you enjoyed this post, stay tuned. There will be more.
Kate, the Busy Boomer
