How do I mango pickle?

August 10, 2018 6:13 AM

I love mango pickle and other Indian vegetable pickles, but I HATE picking around pits and other inedible bits. My most recent jar seemed like it was almost half pits that I had to cut the mango off of in and it made quite a glorious mess! Is there a particular style or brand I should look for where there are no pits, large inedible seasonings, or other things to eat around?
posted by LeeLanded to Food & Drink (7 answers total)

I would look for cut mango pickle. Don't look for avakaya (cut but with fibrous bits) or vadumanga (whole tiny unripe mangoes). Mango thokku could also be an option - this is made with grated mango and is therefore more paste-like with no bits at all.
posted by peacheater at 6:17 AM on August 10, 2018

Here's a google image search for cut mango pickle to give you a better idea of what you're looking for.
posted by peacheater at 6:19 AM on August 10, 2018

I prefer lemon pickle and what that you get mostly edible (because the rind of a pickled lemon is totally edible). Give it a try if you can't find the cut mango pickle.
posted by soren_lorensen at 6:20 AM on August 10, 2018

I eat Mother's Brand mixed pickle. I find it in grocery stores in Toronto so I imagine it's also in NYC (where I think you are based on your posting history). If not, I see it on Amazon. There are some inedible pieces, but they are maybe 1/10 rather than 1/2 as you describe. There are lots of different flavours of pickles too. I've tried "mixed" and, I think, "lime.". The base sauce was the same (a red, spicy, seedy sauce) but the chunks differed.
posted by cranberrymonger at 6:35 AM on August 10, 2018

You'll have better luck moving away from mango into other branches of the pickle/achaar family tree. Lemon, Lemon/chili, and garlic pickle are all pretty common and a lot of fun to play around with - the lemon/lime ones will have segments of rind that are way more edible than the mango pits, if in sometimes too-large pieces. whole garlic cloves are the norm in the garlic pickle ive used too. but, compared to the mango ones, this is much more easily fixed by just rough chopping a few spoonfulls at a time to use however i want.
posted by Exceptional_Hubris at 7:48 AM on August 10, 2018

Nthing the suggestion for lime pickle (mmm!). As Exceptional_Hubris mentions, sometimes there are large chunks of rind, so when I open a jar I usually stick the kitchen scissors into it and snip around until the texture is more to my liking.
posted by Lexica at 11:46 AM on August 10, 2018

Lemon/lime pickle is delicious, but it tastes quite different from mango pickle, simply because lime is very strongly flavoured. Lime pickle is distinctly sour in a way that mango is not. Go ahead and try it if you like, but know that there’s a difference. For something closer to mango pickle, I suggest carrot pickle - no hard bits at all - or mixed pickle. You might also like tomato pickle (Priya makes a nice one).
posted by yawper at 5:38 PM on August 10, 2018