How to Cut a Mango
Cut a mango into clean cubes without fighting the pit, wasting fruit, or slipping the knife into your hand.
The Pit Decides Everything
Most people attack a mango like an apple and hit a wall — the seed inside is a big flat pit, not a small core, and the knife stops dead. Then the fruit slips, the peel is slick, and the hand holding the mango is right where the blade lands.
Find the flat sides first. Stand the mango on end, stem up, and slice down about a quarter inch off center on each wide face — you glide past the pit instead of into it, and you get two clean cheeks to work with.
Stand It Stem Up
The pit runs flat and tall through the middle, so stand the mango on its end with the stem up and cut down the two wide faces, not the skinny ones.
Score, Don't Slice Through
On each cheek, cut a grid down to the skin but stop before the blade cuts through the peel — the skin holds the cubes together until you push them out.
Ripe Means Slight Give
A mango ready to cut gives a little when you press near the stem and smells sweet there; rock-hard fruit fights the knife and tastes like nothing.
Don't Toss The Pit
There's real fruit left around the seed — peel the center section and cut the fruit off the flat sides of the pit before it goes in the trash.
The method
- 1
Wash and steady it
Rinse and dry the mango so it isn't slick. Set it on a cutting board with a damp towel underneath so the board can't slide.
- 2
Trim a base
Slice a thin piece off the bottom so the mango stands upright without wobbling. Stand it stem end up.
- 3
Cut the two cheeks
Slice straight down about a quarter inch to either side of center, following the flat plane of the pit. If the knife catches, you've hit the seed — pull back and move out a little farther.
- 4
Score the flesh
Hold a cheek skin-side down in your palm or flat on the board. Cut a crosshatch grid into the flesh, stopping when you feel the skin, and keep your fingers curled back.
- 5
Push out the cubes
Press the skin side with both thumbs to turn the cheek inside out. Slice the cubes off close to the peel with a small knife.
- 6
Work the pit
Peel the leftover center strip, then run your knife along the flat sides of the pit to take off the last of the fruit. Chop it up or eat it standing over the sink.
Show what you know
Three questions. See if you'd get through a mango without losing half of it.
Question 1 of 3
Your knife stops hard about an inch into the mango. What happened?
Put it to work
A whole fresh mango is the star here, so your new knife work goes straight into a three-ingredient dessert that comes together with pantry staples.
★ dessert
dessertThree Ingredient Mango Flan 🍮
Technically a Mango Budín but this is an ✨Americanized version✨ of the sweet and fluffy dessert.
Mikey BerlfeinIngredients
- 1 Mango
- 2 Eggs
- 1/2 cup Sweet Condensed Milk
- Vanilla extract
- Cinnamon
- Coconut flakes
Instructions
- 1Removes the skin & Cut down mango to be mashed up into a pulp.
- 2Add the 2 eggs and 1/2 cup to mashed mango and stir until evenly mixed
- 3Add in cinnamon, and vanilla extract to taste.
- 4Grease an oven mold with oil of choice and pour mixed ingredients into mold.
- 5Put into the middle rack of the oven at 350F for 35-40 minutes. Poke with a toothpick to see if it’s ready (nothing should stick to the toothpick when pulled out of the pudding)
- 6Pull the flan out of the oven, let it cool. Once it’s cooled flip it over out of the over mold and top it off with coconut flakes for fun
P.S. Pepper keeps the recipe, the timings and your own notes in one place — so the next time you cook it, you're not starting from a search box.
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