- 2 months ago
đź”— Save $6,000 A Year with My Complete Amish Home-Saving Method I teach: https://eliasyoder.com
You see them piled up at the store, those mangoes with the beautiful red and golden skin, and you pick the brightest, reddest, most colorful one, sure that such a gorgeous color must mean a sweet ripe mango inside. You carry it home, you cut into it, and it is hard, or sour, or stringy and bland, a disappointment. And you blame yourself, or you blame the mango, and you go on getting it wrong, because nobody ever told you the one thing that matters most about choosing a mango.
Here is the truth that fools nearly everyone. With a mango, the color lies. That red and gold blush you have been trusting tells you almost nothing about whether the mango is ripe and sweet, for it is mostly just the kind of mango it is, not how ripe it is. The folks who always pick the sweet juicy ones are not going by color at all. They are using their nose and their hands. We do not grow mangoes here in our cold Lancaster County, so I come to them a buyer the same as you, but the old way of reading any fruit by its smell and its feel works on a mango as well as anything in my own garden.
Here is what I walk you
You see them piled up at the store, those mangoes with the beautiful red and golden skin, and you pick the brightest, reddest, most colorful one, sure that such a gorgeous color must mean a sweet ripe mango inside. You carry it home, you cut into it, and it is hard, or sour, or stringy and bland, a disappointment. And you blame yourself, or you blame the mango, and you go on getting it wrong, because nobody ever told you the one thing that matters most about choosing a mango.
Here is the truth that fools nearly everyone. With a mango, the color lies. That red and gold blush you have been trusting tells you almost nothing about whether the mango is ripe and sweet, for it is mostly just the kind of mango it is, not how ripe it is. The folks who always pick the sweet juicy ones are not going by color at all. They are using their nose and their hands. We do not grow mangoes here in our cold Lancaster County, so I come to them a buyer the same as you, but the old way of reading any fruit by its smell and its feel works on a mango as well as anything in my own garden.
Here is what I walk you
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00You stand at the market before a pile of mangoes, and you want a good one, a sweet, soft, fragrant
00:06mango dripping with juice, the kind that is one of the finest things in all the world to eat.
00:12So you do what everyone does. You look for the reddest, most colorful one, the one blushed deep red and
00:20orange, because surely that is the ripe one.
00:23You take it home, you cut it open, and it is hard and green inside, and sour and stringy, a
00:31sad disappointment, and you wonder what you did wrong.
00:35Here is what you did wrong, and it is the great secret of the mango that fools near everyone.
00:41You judged it by its color, and with a mango, the color tells you almost nothing about whether it is
00:49ripe, nothing at all.
00:50That red blush you chased is not ripeness, it is just the kind of mango it is, or the side
00:57that faced the sun.
00:59The mango is the trickiest fruit in the whole market to choose, because the one thing your eye goes to
01:06first, the color, is the one thing that lies to you.
01:09So today I am going to teach you the five things that actually tell you a ripe mango, none of
01:16which is the color, so you never again take home a hard, sour one.
01:21I am Elias, and as you know, we do not grow mangoes in our cold Lancaster County.
01:27They are a fruit of the hot, far places, so I come to them a buyer the same as you.
01:33But the old way of reading a fruit by hand and nose, the way my grandmother taught me, works on
01:39a mango as well as any fruit in my own garden,
01:43and the mango is the very fruit where that old hand-and-nose wisdom matters most, because the eye alone
01:50will fool you every time.
01:53Five Things
01:54Five Things That See Past the Color to the Truth of the Fruit
01:59Let me tell you about my grandmother and her nose, for it is the heart of this whole lesson.
02:05She did her marketing more by smell than by sight, and I remember being a boy and watching her, a
02:12little embarrassed,
02:13as she lifted each melon and each fruit to her nose and breathed it in before ever she would buy
02:19it.
02:19The other folks chose with their eyes, grabbing the prettiest, but she would close her eyes and smell.
02:26And her fruit was always sweet, always ripe, never a sour dud among it, while the pretty-eyed shoppers took
02:35home their disappointments.
02:36Grandmother, I asked her once, why do you smell them so?
02:40And she said, Elias, the eye sees only the skin, but the nose smells the heart.
02:47A fruit cannot hide its ripeness from the nose the way it hides it from the eye.
02:53I never forgot it, and there is no fruit in all the world that proves her righter than the mango,
02:59for the mango is the very fruit that hides its ripeness from the eye and tells it true only to
03:06the nose and the hand.
03:07So, as I teach you these five, know that I am really teaching you my grandmother's way,
03:13to choose with the senses that cannot be fooled, rather than the one that can.
03:18The first thing is the hardest to learn, because it means unlearning what you think you know.
03:24Do not judge a mango by its color.
03:27I will say it plain because it is that important.
03:30There are many kinds of mango, and they ripen to many different colors.
03:35Some kinds are red and orange when ripe, yes, but some stay green even when perfectly ripe and sweet,
03:42and some are yellow, and some are a mix.
03:45So, a green mango may be hard and unripe, or it may be perfectly ripe.
03:50You cannot tell from the green.
03:52And a beautiful red one may be ripe, or it may be a hard, sour dud
03:57that simply happens to be a red kind of mango.
04:01You cannot tell from the red.
04:02The red blush especially fools folks, for it is often just the side that caught the sun
04:09and has nothing to do with ripeness at all.
04:12So, put the color out of your mind entirely.
04:15It is the great liar of the mango.
04:18Learn the kind of mango you are buying if you can, but never, ever trust the color to tell you
04:24ripe.
04:24It may help to know that the most common mango you will find in many stores, a large kind,
04:30is one that stays largely green, or green and red, even when fully ripe,
04:35so a body trained to wait for it to turn golden will wait forever and never eat it,
04:42or give up and cut it green and sour.
04:44Other kinds, smaller and golden yellow, do turn a full yellow when ripe, but even then,
04:52the give and the smell tell you truer than the shade of yellow.
04:57The lesson holds across all of them.
04:59The color is only the kind of mango, and the play of the sun on its skin never assure word
05:06on the ripeness within.
05:08Some of the sweetest mangoes I have ever eaten were green as grass on the outside.
05:14Once you let go of the color, you are ready to learn what truly tells you.
05:20Quick word before I go further.
05:22The old methods my family uses, there is more of it than fits in any one video.
05:28I gathered the whole of it into a book at EliasYoder.com.
05:33The book is the long version.
05:35If you want it, it is there.
05:37I will not mention it again.
05:39The second thing, and this is the first true test, is the give.
05:45Since you cannot trust your eyes, you must trust your hands, and the squeeze is the heart of it.
05:51You take the mango gentle in your palm and give it a soft, even squeeze with your whole hand,
05:58not poking with a hard thumb, which only bruises it.
06:02A ripe mango yields, gives a little under your hand, soft but not mushy, the way a ripe peach or
06:10a ripe avocado gives.
06:12That gentle give is ripeness, whatever the color.
06:16If it is hard as a rock, firm all through, with no give at all, it is not ripe yet,
06:23green inside, whatever its skin looks like.
06:27And if it gives too much, if it feels mushy and your fingers sink in, it is overripe, going soft
06:34and off inside.
06:35So you want that gentle, living give, soft to a kind squeeze, but not mushy.
06:43The hand knows what the eye cannot.
06:46And mind you press gentle, and with the flat of your whole hand, not dig at one spot with a
06:53thumb,
06:54for a hard poke bruises the soft, ripe fruit right where you press and starts it rotting,
07:00and a fruit handled rough by every passing shopper is soon a fruit gone bad.
07:07So be gentle for the fruit's sake as well as for the truth of your test.
07:12The hand knows what the eye cannot.
07:14A red mango hard as a stone is not ripe, no matter how pretty.
07:21A green one with a gentle give is ripe and sweet.
07:25Trust the squeeze over the color, always.
07:29The third thing is the one almost nobody does, and it is the surest of all, the smell.
07:36A mango will tell you it is ripe with its fragrance if you only put it to your nose.
07:41And the place to smell is the stem end, the top, where the fruit was joined to the tree,
07:48for that is where the scent comes through strongest.
07:51You hold the stem end to your nose, and you breathe it in.
07:55A ripe mango gives off a rich, sweet, fragrant smell right there at the stem,
08:02a smell that fairly makes your mouth water, the very smell of the sweetness inside.
08:08If it smells sweet and fruity and strong, it is ripe, and it will taste as good as it smells.
08:15If it smells of nothing at all, no scent, then it is not ripe yet, the sweetness has not come
08:22up.
08:22And if, rarely, it smells sour or of drink, a fermented, sharp smell,
08:29then it has gone over, too far, beginning to turn.
08:38It is the plainest three-word test there is, and once you have smelled a few, you will know each
08:48at once.
08:49The nose is the truest judge of a mango there is, and it is free, and it never lies the
08:56way the color does.
08:57Learn to smell the stem end, and you will near never go wrong.
09:01And here is why the nose is so sure where the eye fails.
09:07The sweetness of a ripe fruit is a real thing.
09:10It gives off its fragrance into the air, and that fragrance cannot be faked nor hidden.
09:16It rises straight from the ripe, sweet flesh within.
09:21A fruit can wear any color on its skin, but it cannot smell sweet unless it truly is sweet inside.
09:29That is why the nose cannot be fooled.
09:32The smell comes from the very thing you are trying to judge, the ripeness itself, while the color comes from
09:38something else entirely.
09:40So of all five tests, if you could keep but one, keep the smell of the stem end.
09:46Let me tell you a little of this fruit, for it helps to know it.
09:50The mango grows on a great tree in the hot countries, and it is one of the most loved and
09:55most eaten fruits in all the world, far more than folks in the cold countries know.
10:00A fruit some people's prize above all others, and have grown and eaten for thousands of years.
10:07When it is good, ripe, and sweet, the flesh is a deep gold, soft and rich and dripping with a
10:15sweet juice,
10:16with a flavor like nothing else, something of peach and something of pine and something all its own.
10:23It is one of the great pleasures of eating there is.
10:27But it has that great flat pit in the middle, the stone, that you must eat around,
10:33and it can be a messy, dribbling, two-handed business to eat, which is half its joy.
10:39The point of telling you this is to say the prize is worth the trouble of choosing right.
10:44A perfect ripe mango is so fine a thing that it is well worth learning these five tests to get
10:52it,
10:52rather than gambling your dear money on the color and so often losing.
10:57The fourth thing is the shape, and this one tells you not so much the ripeness as the worth of
11:03the fruit,
11:03how much good flesh you are getting for your money.
11:07A mango has a large flat pit, a great stone in the middle, and what you eat is the flesh
11:13around it.
11:14So you want a mango that is full and plump and rounded, fat in the body,
11:20for that fullness means a thick lot of flesh around the pit.
11:24A mango that is flat and thin and slab-sided, for all that may be ripe,
11:30has less flesh and more pit, you are buying mostly stone.
11:35So between two ripe mangoes, choose the fuller, rounder, plumper one,
11:41heavy and full in the hand, for that one gives you the most fruit for your money.
11:46The thin, flat one is mostly pit and skin.
11:50Pick the plump, full-bodied one.
11:53You learn the feel of it quick, hefting two of a size in your two hands,
11:57the fuller one sitting heavier and rounder in the palm, fat-cheeked,
12:02while the thin one feels light and slab-sided, more stone than fruit.
12:08With the dearer kinds, especially, where you pay a good price for each fruit,
12:13this is worth doing, for it is the difference between a mango that gives you two fat cheeks of gold
12:19flesh
12:19and one that gives you a thin pairing around a great pit.
12:23Pick the plump, full-bodied one.
12:26The fifth thing is the troubles on the skin, the blemishes,
12:30and you must turn the mango all around in your hands to find them,
12:34for the bad spot hides against the pile where you cannot see it.
12:39Now mind, a few small dark freckles or speckles on a mango are no harm at all,
12:45and can even be a sign of ripeness in some kinds.
12:48What you do not want are the big, soft, sunken spots,
12:53the dark, mushy bruises, for those mean the fruit is bruised and rotting beneath,
12:59and that goes bad inward.
13:01And look, too, for any leaking sap or sticky black around the stem,
13:06or a shriveled, deeply wrinkled skin,
13:09for a little wrinkling can mean ripe,
13:11but a deep, shriveled wrinkling means old and drying out and past its best.
13:17So a few freckles, fine.
13:19Big, soft bruises, leaking sap, deep, shriveling, leave it.
13:25Turn it all the way over and check the hidden side before you trust it,
13:30for the pile always hides the worst against the bottom.
13:33And let me add the small word of hurry that goes with all this,
13:38the same as with any fine fruit.
13:40The perfectly ripe ones, soft to the squeeze and sweet to the nose,
13:45are always few in the pile,
13:47and they are the first taken by the folks who know how to find them.
13:51So if you would have the ripe ones to eat soon,
13:55go through the pile with your hand and nose
13:57and claim them before the knowing shoppers do.
14:00And if the ripe ones are already gone, no matter,
14:04for now you know to buy the firm ones and ripen them at home,
14:08which the lazy shopper cannot do
14:10because he never learned that a firm mango becomes a sweet one on the counter.
14:15Either way, you eat well,
14:17but the ripe now ones go fast,
14:19so do not dawdle if it is tonight's supper you are after.
14:24So there are your five.
14:26First and above all, ignore the color,
14:29for it is the great lyre of the mango.
14:32Then trust the gentle give to a soft squeeze.
14:36Smell the stem end for that sweet, ripe fragrance,
14:40the surest test of all.
14:43Choose the full, plump, rounded one for the most flesh and least pit,
14:48and turn it over to check for the big, soft bruises and leaking sap.
14:53Do those five with your hand and your nose and not just your eye,
14:58and you will bring home a sweet, ripe mango near every time,
15:03while the folks beside you keep chasing the pretty red duds.
15:08And here is a kind word to leave you,
15:11for the mango is forgiving in a way many fruits are not.
15:15If you bring home a mango that is firm, not yet ripe, do not fret,
15:20for unlike many fruits, the mango ripens well on your own counter.
15:26You leave it out at room warmth, not in the cold,
15:29and over a few days it will soften and sweeten and grow fragrant,
15:34ripening right there in your kitchen.
15:36So a firm mango is not a wasted one.
15:40It is a mango for later in the week,
15:43and you can buy a few at different stages,
15:45some soft and ready, and some firm for the days ahead,
15:50the way a wise body buys.
15:52And if you want to hurry a firm one along,
15:55set it in a paper bag, or beside a banana or an apple,
15:59and the ripening air they give off will speed it.
16:03Once it is soft and ripe,
16:05then into the cold to hold it a few days.
16:08So even when you must buy them firm,
16:11you can ripen them right,
16:13and that takes all the worry out of it.
16:16And let me say a quick word on the cutting of it,
16:19for a good mango wrongly cut
16:21is half wasted on that big pit,
16:24and my Esther taught me the right way of it.
16:27The pit is flat and broad,
16:29lying on its side through the middle of the fruit,
16:32so you do not cut straight down the center,
16:35or you will hit it.
16:37Instead, you stand the mango up
16:39and slice down just to one side of the middle,
16:43missing the flat pit,
16:44and then down the other side,
16:46giving you two fat cheeks of flesh
16:49and the thin pit piece between.
16:52Those two cheeks you can score in a crisscross
16:55right down to the skin
16:57without cutting through it.
16:59Then push the skin from beneath
17:01so it turns inside out
17:03and the squares of flesh
17:05stand up like a hedgehog,
17:07easy to cut or bite off.
17:10The flesh clinging to the pit itself,
17:12you simply cut and gnaw off
17:14as the cook's reward,
17:16standing over the sink,
17:17for that is the messy, sweet part
17:20the cook keeps for herself.
17:22Esther always claims it,
17:24and I do not begrudge her.
17:26A mango cut so
17:28wastes almost nothing
17:29and is the easiest way
17:31to get at all that good gold flesh
17:33around the troublesome stone.
17:36Now let me say the small, honest word
17:39about who profits from your not knowing
17:42these five.
17:43Not to rile you up,
17:45just so you see the shape of it.
17:47The mango is a deer fruit,
17:49shipped a long way from hot places,
17:52and it costs a good deal more
17:54than a common apple.
17:56And the store sells you
17:57the hard, sour dud
17:59at the very same deer price
18:01as the perfect, ripe one,
18:03for they ring up just the same.
18:05They are content for you
18:07to chase the pretty red color,
18:09the great liar,
18:10and take your chances.
18:12And when it turns out hard and sour,
18:14you blame the fruit or yourself,
18:17never your choosing,
18:19and you come back and pay again.
18:21The pretty dud and the perfect one
18:24cost them the same to stock
18:26and cost you the same at the till.
18:28The one who loses by your not knowing
18:31is only you,
18:32every time you pay that deer price
18:35for a sour, stringy disappointment.
18:38I am not telling you
18:39a man schemed this.
18:41No one had to.
18:43It is worse than a conspiracy
18:45because it is a system
18:46nobody had to coordinate.
18:48It simply costs the store
18:50nothing for you to keep
18:51buying sour mangoes
18:53by their color
18:54at a deer price
18:55and costs you
18:56every time you do.
18:58So the next time you stand
19:00before that pile of mangoes,
19:02do not let your eye
19:03lead you to the reddest one
19:05and your money follow.
19:07Stop and put the color
19:09out of your mind.
19:10Squeeze gentle for the give.
19:13Smell the stem end
19:14for the sweetness.
19:16Choose the plump, full one.
19:19Turn it over for the hidden bruise.
19:21Ten seconds.
19:22With your hand and your nose
19:24and you walk off
19:25with the sweetest mango in the pile
19:27while everyone else
19:28pays the same deer price
19:30for the pretty sour ones.
19:32A mango got right
19:34is one of the great pleasures
19:35of eating there is.
19:37A mango got wrong
19:38is a deer and sour regret.
19:42Be the one who knows the difference.
19:44Now I want to hear from you
19:46and I ask honest
19:48because I learned the whole country
19:49from these comments.
19:51Tell me in the comments below,
19:53did you ever know
19:54that the color of a mango
19:55tells you near nothing?
19:57For I find this surprises folks
19:59more than any other thing
20:00I teach about fruit.
20:01And tell me your county
20:03and what kinds of mango
20:04you find near you
20:06because some parts of the country
20:08see kinds that others never do
20:10and I like to map it
20:11by where you all write from.
20:13I read every one.
20:16Next time,
20:17we stay in the warm,
20:18far countries
20:19and go to the papaya.
20:21Five things to look for
20:22for the papaya
20:23is another fine fruit
20:25that the store fools folks on
20:26sold hard and green
20:28and never ripening right
20:30when a papaya chosen well
20:32is a sweet and tender thing.
20:35If you have ever been let down
20:37by a papaya,
20:38that one will set you right.
20:40A mango is one of the sweetest gifts
20:43the warm countries send us,
20:45carried a long way to our tables,
20:47and it deserves to be chosen
20:49with the hand and the nose
20:50and not the eye,
20:52for the eye is the one sense
20:54the mango fools.
20:56My grandmother chose every fruit
20:58by feel and by smell
21:00as much as by sight,
21:02the old, sure way,
21:03and it served her
21:04where the eye alone fails.
21:07The kitchen that knows
21:08to trust the hand and the nose
21:10over the color
21:11is the kitchen that never brings home
21:13a sour mango.
21:15The people who built this country
21:17with their hands knew that,
21:19and we are only just starting
21:21to remember it.