Dehydrating mangos
For a healthier snack, why not dehydrate some fresh mangos? Yesterday I water-bath canned, dehydrated, and froze multitudes of mangos. Today I still have the dehydrator going full swing.
Dehydrating mangos is extremely simple to do. First, you'll need to peel and slice the flesh of the fruit off of the seed. I prefer trying to slice each mango in halves to the best of my ability, because once the mangos are dehydrated they shrink down a good bit.
When dehydrating food of any kind, the dehydrating process dries out all the juices from whatever it is you're preserving.
For pre-treating the fruit, I use lemon juice to soak the mangos in. You will need to use the juice of one lemon for every four mangos that you slice. A lemon produces about ¼ cup of freshly-squeezed lemon juice. That equals about four tablespoons per lemon. Bottled lemon juice can also be used.
You'll want to pretreat the mangos, so that they'll have a good texture when they're finished dehydrating. Pre-treating also prevents bad bacteria from forming while the mangos are dehydrating, plus it keeps the fruit from turning an ugly brown color.
So, after you have peeled, sliced, seeded, and pre-treated the mangos, it's time to transfer the mango slices to the dehydrator trays. Leave spaces in between the slices and try not to overlap any. The secret to good dehydrating is to never over crowd the trays.
In between dehydrating times, turn the fruit pieces over. This isn't something that you have to do, but I do it. It seems to even out the drying time.
Set the dehydrator temperature to 145 degrees F and dry for about fourteen hours or longer. Once the fruit is dehydrated to your liking, take the dehydrated mangos from the trays and transfer them into Ziploc bags, or some other type of airtight container. I placed mine in vacuum-sealed jars.
Do not worry about over dehydrating. You CAN NOT over-dry foods! The longer you allow your food to dehydrate, the drier it will become, and that means that it can be stored safely and for longer periods.
To rehydrate the mangos, place the amount that you need in a bowl of hot water, steep for about fifteen minutes. Then drain the water off.
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