A No-Fuss Trick for Cutting a Mango
Here’s how to deal with that awkward pit.

Fresh mango is a tropical treat that stands out from the crowd. It’s distinctly sweet, incredibly juicy, and has a flavor that instantly puts palm trees and sunshine in your head.
If you live in a tropical area, you might be a pro at cutting into fresh mangoes already. But if cutting mangoes feels a tad intimidating to you, we completely empathize. Sometimes it’s just simpler to buy the pre-sliced stuff, right?
Cutting mangoes looks harder than it actually is. First, before you cut into a mango, you want to make sure it’s ripe. (Here’s how to pick a ripe mango.)
With your ripe fresh mango, look for the “nose” at the tip of the mango. This shows you where the pit—a long, flat seed—is situated. Slice on each side of the seed using a chef’s knife, and you’ll end up with two sides known as the “cheeks” of the mango.
Depending on the side of the pit, you may also be able to scrape some more meat off the sides of the pit.
With each mango cheek, cut a cross-hatch pattern into the mango, but don’t cut through the mango peel. Then, turn the mango cheek inside out so that the peel is underneath. Using either your chef’s knife or a paring knife, slice along the peel to cut the mango cubes loose. You should end with a pile of diced mango.
After you cut and peel the mango, you can use it in a tropical yogurt parfait, mango salsa, or a dipping sauce for coconut-crusted shrimp.
Frances Largeman-Roth is a nutritionist and cookbook author in New York City.
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[SOUND] Mangoes are one
of my favorite fruit.
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They're so juicy and delicious.
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But a lot of people
are afraid to cut into them.
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I'm Frances Largeman-Roth, and I'm gonna
show you an easy way to cut into a mango.
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What I'm gonna do is I'm gonna look for
this little nose here.
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And that's gonna tell
you where the seed is.
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And then you wanna slice on either side
of the seed using a sharp, chef's knife.
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And these are called the cheeks.
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The cheeks of the mango.
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And you can get a little bit
more of the meat off the sides.
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And then you're basically
left with the pit.
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So then I have my mango cheek here, which
is beautiful, and I'm just gonna make
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little slices, and then the other way,
so doing a cross hatch pattern.
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And then, you just go like this.
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And you can slice out those pieces
either still using your big knife or
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switching up to a paring knife.
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And then you can use these in
a fruit salad, mango salsa.
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Whatever you like.
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