Whenever someone first told us you could peel a mango using a drinking glass, we gave that someone a healthy dose of side-eye. A drinking glass? Really? How does that even work?
We were just about to file that tidbit away under Lies the Internet Told Us, but the sheer ridiculousness of it all spurred a whole new series: Hack or Wack, where we try out the craziest, I-haven't-tried-this-but-my-neighbor's-cousin's-mailman-swears-it-works food hacks we've heard.
It takes a little finagling to start peeling the mango, but we were shocked—shocked!—to see how easily it worked once you got going. Schwoop! Deskinned mango in seconds. That said, you still have to deal with the hulking pit in the center of the mango, which basically seems superglued to the mango's flesh. And there's the whole act of cutting the mango in half in the first place. Hacks for those would be game-changers. (And by game changers, I mean my coworkers would have to deal with me eating mangoes at my desk every. Single. Day. Sorry, guys.)
You could slice the mango into thirds, discarding the middle section with the oblong pit—or cutting off the flesh around the pit and using that—and then use the drinking glass to peel the remaining two portions. It'd make for cleaner mango slices than my on-camera attempt, though it would mean more work to get the job done.
The bottom line: If you suddenly, desperately, need to peel half a dozen mangoes, try this hack. If you just need a snack to keep you from mauling the vending machine, this may be a better choice:
Take a "cheek" of mango—AKA one of the mango thirds without the pit in it—make a few horiztonal and vertical slices through just the flesh, then use your fingers or a spoon to scoop out the mango cubes, like Dani Spies demonstrates.
Candace Braun Davison writes, edits, and produces lifestyle content that ranges from celebrity features to roll-up-your-sleeves DIYs, all while relentlessly pursuing the noblest of causes: the quest for the world's best chocolate chip cookie.
