Choose ripe, mature fruit of ideal quality for eating fresh or cooking. They should not be mushy, but they also should not be rock hard: just as ripe as you would eat them fresh. You can also use solid green mangoes. Select firm, non-fibrous fruit. Caution: Handling green mangoes may irritate the skin of some people in the same way as poison ivy. (They belong to the same plant family.) (see this page for more information) To avoid this reaction, wear plastic gloves while working with raw green mango. Do not touch your face, lips or eyes after touching or cutting green mangoes until all traces are washed away .
Step 2 - How many mangoes and where to get them
You can pick your own, or buy them at the grocery store in the summer months. But for large quantities, you'll find that Costco, Sam's Club and BJ's seem to have the largest mangoes and best prices.
It takes about 5 good sized mangoes to fill one quart jar.
* - not the cutesy, fake farmer's markets that are just warehouse grocery stores that call themselves farmer's markets.
Step 3 - Prepare the sugar (or other sweetener) solution
Mangoes may be packed in a syrup or dry: It's up to you which to use. Sugar is added to improve flavor, help stabilize color, and retain the shape of the fruit. It is not added as a preservative. Sugar solution is much less expensive (unless you have a supply of cheap grape juice), so I usually use a light or medium solution to keep sugar (and the added calories) to a minimum. A medium syrup is what the USDA recommends.
A Syrup Pack is preferred for mangos to be used for uncooked desserts or fruit cocktail. A dry pack is good for pie making. The dry pack can be used any way. The syrup pack methods are less likely to brown or have freezer burn. Arrange slices on a flat pan and freeze. When frozen remove and store in sealed containers.
- Syrup Pack – Use cold 40 percent syrup. (That is 2 cups of sugar added to every 3 cups of water. ) Of course, you can scale this up or down to suit the amount of mangos you have. To prevent browning, add 1/2 teaspoon (1500 mg) ascorbic acid (also known as "FruitFresh") to each quart of syrup.
- Dry Pack – To prevent darkening, dissolve 1/2 teaspoon (1500 mg) ascorbic acid (also known as "FruitFresh") in 3 tablespoons water.
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