Brined - India, Pakistan and Bangladesh

Green mango pickle

Name: Green mango pickle
Cuisine: India, Pakistan and Bangladesh

The commercial process, and it contains two additives a home cook would not use: sodium metabisulphite and calcium chloride. They are printed here because the bulletin prints them, and the page says plainly which steps they belong to.

6 steps, every one quoted from FAO Bulletin 134 6.2.1. The step labels are this site's; the sentences under them are not.

Salt, at a batch you might actually make

20 % salt in water, of the weight of the finished brine.

Water	Salt at 20%	Salt at 20%
1 kg	250 g	-
2 kg	500 g	-
5 kg	1250 g	-

The arithmetic, at 2 kg

Percent by weight of the finished brine.
salt / (salt + water) = percent / 100
salt = water x percent / (100 - percent)
     = 2.000 kg x 20.00% / (100 - 20)
     = 500.0 g

Finished brine: 2.500 kg, of which 20.00% is salt.

This is a percentage by weight of the finished brine, which is what a salinity meter reads and is not the same as grams per 100 mL of water. The calculator gives both.

Every number the source states

Brine: 20% salt in water
Additives: Sodium metabisulphite 1000 ppm and 1% calcium chloride

Substrate

Mango

Region

Method

Numbered for your place in the list. Every sentence below is the source's own, verified against the page it came from when this table was last built from the sources.

Select unripe
The fresh, fully mature, firm but unripe mangoes must be carefully selected to ensure a good quality product.
Sort
The green mangoes need to be inspected and any damaged fruit rejected.
Wash
The fruit is washed in clean water and drained.
Cut cleanly
Sharp knives with preferably stainless blades should be used. Iron or copper equipment should be avoided. A single stroke should be used during the cutting process to ensure minimum damage and avoiding mushiness in the final product.
Brine
The sliced mangoes are soaked in brine solution.
Drain and spice
The brine is then drained off and spices are mixed with the mango slices (Redelinghuys and Van der Riet, 1978).

The source's own flow diagram

Five of these recipes are printed in the bulletin with a process diagram beside the prose. It is lifted whole here, cells and all, because it is the closest thing the source has to a written recipe and it sometimes carries a detail the prose leaves out.

Stage	Note
Fruit	The mangoes need to be unripe
Sort	Remove damaged fruit
Wash	With clean water.
Drain	-
Cut	Stainless steel knives should be used
Soaked in brine	20% salt solution
Drain	Spices to taste
Add spices	-
Pack	Pack in containers and add oil

What else the source says

The commercial additives: Sodium metabisulphite (1000 ppm) and 1% calcium chloride are added.
Why early maturity: The best pickles are obtained from fruit at early maturity when the fruit has reached almost maximum size.
Packing: The mixture is then packed and oil added onto the surface of the mixture. The mangoes should be firmly pressed down in the container.

Before you make this

This site is a reference and not a food safety authority. It reports what named sources published and does not certify that any preparation is safe. The safety page sets out what the sources themselves say about acidity, about surface growth and about when to throw something away, and equipment lists the instruments the numbers above cannot be checked without.

The full record for this pickle, including every source consulted and the ones that disagree, is on its tradition page.

Other brined recipes

Method and asides from FAO 134 Battcock, M. and Azam-Ali, S. (1998) Fermented fruits and vegetables: A global perspective. FAO Agricultural Services Bulletin No. 134. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome. Numbers from the same source, extracted separately and listed on methodology.