Ingredient

Mango

There are hundreds of mango varieties and the differences between them are enormous — far bigger than between apple varieties. The stringy, faintly turpentine fruit sold year-round and the perfumed, silky Alphonso available for six weeks in early summer are barely the same experience.

The varieties, and when to look

Alphonso

Indian, small, saffron-orange flesh, no fibre, intensely perfumed. Roughly April to June. The one worth going out of your way for.

Kesar

Indian, slightly later than Alphonso, greener skin, deep orange flesh, very sweet. Often better value.

Honey / Ataulfo

Small, yellow, kidney-shaped, flat stone, no fibre. Available longer and reliably good.

Tommy Atkins

The big red-and-green supermarket mango. Bred for shipping. Fibrous, mild and often disappointing.

Keitt and Kent

Large, green-skinned even when ripe, low fibre, good flavour. Much better than Tommy Atkins and often cheaper.

Colour will not tell you

The red blush on a mango indicates sun exposure and variety, not ripeness. Several excellent varieties stay green when fully ripe, and a brilliant scarlet Tommy Atkins can be rock hard inside.

Use smell and touch instead. A ripe mango smells sweet and resinous at the stem end, and gives to gentle pressure along its length the way a ripe avocado does. Wrinkling at the stem end is a sign of full ripeness rather than of age.

Mangoes ripen well after picking, so buying firm is fine. Keep them at room temperature, in a paper bag with a banana if you are in a hurry, and refrigerate only once ripe.

Cutting round the stone

The stone is large, flat and oval, and it runs the length of the fruit in the same plane as the flattest side.

1. Stand the mango on its end with the narrow edge facing you. The stone is aligned with that narrow edge.
2. Cut down either side of it, about a centimetre from the centre line, to give two "cheeks".
3. Score each cheek into a criss-cross grid, cutting to but not through the skin.
4. Push the skin inside out. The cubes stand up and can be sliced off flat against the skin.
5. Trim the two remaining strips of flesh from the sides of the stone, and eat what clings to the stone standing over the sink.

Green mango, which is a different ingredient

Unripe mango is used deliberately across South and Southeast Asia, and it is not a failed ripe one.

• Som tam and other Thai salads, shredded with lime, chilli, fish sauce and peanuts.
• Indian raw mango chutney and pickle, where the sourness is the point.
• Amchur — dried green mango powder — used as a souring agent in Indian cooking in the way lemon is used elsewhere.
• Sliced with salt and chilli powder, eaten as a snack.
• In a Vietnamese salad with prawns and herbs.
• Do not try to ripen a green cooking mango. The varieties grown for it are picked and used sour.

Common questions