Mango Question - Fruit and Steam Juicing

[tgoose55]

Last year I made a batch of Mango wine and it turned out excellent. However I used the whole fruit. I cut the mango into chunks and put it into my primary fermentor in a nylon sac. There was a lot of "slimy" sediment. Needless to say everything worked out great and the wine is excellent.

So I decided to buy Mango's from the grocery store when they hit the reduced rack. So far I have 50 mangos in the freezer with a bunch to go. The fall my wife purchased me a steam juicer and I have used that with concords, apples, and pears.

Does anyone have any experience with running mangos in a steam juicer? Will they juice fine in the steam juicer? Does the "slimyness" go through the pores and still end up in the juice collection pan? Does it work out or are they too mush/stringy to run in a steam juicer?

Finally when people use a steam juicer do you totally defrost your fruit before placing in the juicer or can you put fruit in frozen?

Does anyone know when to expect the major push for mangos in the grocery stores. Around me, Northwest Suburbs of Chicago, they prices are currently dropping. I remember last year paying $0.12 per mango from our local grocery store. I would like to know when to expect the prices to drop.

Thanks,
Rob

 

[SBWs]

I can answer the one question. Frozen fruit works fine. I don't know about Mango's, I do know if you use steamed elderberry juice you don't get the green goo that comes with using berries.

 

[tgoose55]

Saturday I decided to try steam juicing my mangos:

- Estimated 35 lbs of mangos (7 qty 1 gallon bags each weighing about 5 lbs).
- Mangos were skinned
- All mangos were placed in the freezer after skinning.
- Used both Ataulfo and Red Mangos from the local grocery stores reduced produce rack

Process:
- Do not fill up steaming kettle with mangos. I believe when the mangos begin to steam down they lose their form. This begins to fill the steaming holes with mango pulp, preventing the steam from making its way into the steaming pot.
- I used about 5 lbs of mango per steaming session
- Each steaming session was 1 1/2 hours long

Results of steam juicing:
- The ataulfo mangos really kept their form
- The red mangos turned to mush, similar to pears without their skins.
- Ended up with 3.5 gallons of extracted juice to make a 6 gallon batch of wine.

Rob