Dehydrating Mangoes

[Chaco Taco]

I just bought some really nice magoes at the organic market. They are a little bigger than regular mangoes. While looking through my dehydrator book, they list pretreatment of them with citric acid from oranges or pineapples. My question is how should i pretreat them? Also, it lists out other fruits like apricots at a drying time of 36 hours. How long should I go for mangoes?

[Spock]

I don't pretreat mangoes before drying them; I think other fruit juices or citric acid ruins the flavor. Drying time will depend on how thick you slice them, what kind of dryer you use, ambient humidity, etc. I don't preheat them, again because it hurts the flavor of the final product. I find that 3/8" is about right for thickness, but I don't worry if some is thinner. In my convection dryer, the time is about 10 hours - but that will vary with dryer brand, ambient humidity, etc.

One thing: the riper they are, the better they will taste - as with any dried fruit.

[Froggy]

Same experience as Spock's.

They are sure good!

[Chaco Taco]

Sweetness:sun

[Spock]

Home dried mangoes are GOOOOD! So good that it's hard to get them packaged. They are just about the best dried fruit - with pineapple a close second.

That reminds me: Try drying pineapple, too. Choose pineapples that are almost too ripe. Sometimes you can get these free from the produce manager. Slice them lengthwise and cut out the fiberous core. Then just slice any way you want - radially or longitudinally - it won't matter much. Throw them on dryer trays. They are much better than the store bought versions.

[orangebug]

Back to the original question.

Treating them with Citric Acid (orange or lemon juice) is simply a strategy to preserve the color of the dried fruit. It does leave some flavor, but really does little other than a cosmetic thing.

Since you are dehydrating for personal consumption and not for impressing others, don't bother with it.

Let your magoes (or any other fruit) almost get too ripe. Look for tenderness and maybe a few splotches on the peel. Peel and slice fairly thinly to keep drying time fairly quick - I aim for 12 hours, or when I start supper and when I am about to leave for work the next morning. You really can't over dry them. I enjoy making peaches chips - very dry peach slices.

[Ewker]

I use canned sliced pineapple in its own juice. I either drink the juice or sve it to dip other fruits in. If have always heard the ones used in cans are ripe or over ripe. Not sure how true that is

[Topcat]

One warning about mango's, lots of people get an poison ivy type reaction from eating the skin around the lips. Peeling is the way to go.