Food Preservation

For the experiment, I choose to preserve a mango because at home, most of our mangoes are left unconsumed and rotten since there’s too much of it to eat alongside our meals. To lessen the number of these cases, I wanted to still eat them while not having to worry about it spoiling and wasted. The food item we will do for the experiment is a mango preserve. I like the idea of making them since it involves sugar in the preservation process, unlike dried mangoes, which usually don’t use the process since mangoes are already high in sugar on it’s own. Also, in making fruit preserves, mangoes are not so commonly featured compared to berries (usually strawberries), so presenting this idea could make the public interested in something different from what they usually do to preserve fruits.

Our problem is that mangoes can spoil fast (in about 1-2 weeks’ time) and that there’s not many ways to preserve it besides drying it or turning it into jam/jelly/preserve.

However, I believe that I will successfully preserve the mango for a month at most because I have made and have seen others make preserves that last for that long.

PART B: INGREDIENTS

For the preserve, we will need the following ingredients:
* 1½ cups mango, cubed
* 1 cup sugar
* ½ cup water

PART C: PROCEDURE

1. Place the sugar and water into a saucepan or wok, heat over a medium flame, and stir until the sugar dissolves completely. 2. Once the mixture begins to simmer, add the mangoes and boil over medium heat for 10 minutes. Cool down the preserve. 3. After the preserve has cooled down, transfer to an airtight container and store in the refrigerator. It can be stored for up to four weeks.

PART D: SOURCES

* RK, A. (2009, July 6). Mango preserve/gulamba. Retrieved from http://www.divinetaste.com/archives/mango-preservegulamba/ * Research on local supermarkets’ products
* Previous notes (recipe journal)
* Avila-Mooney, G. (2011, December 11). Easy prep and storage tips for your full circle produce. Retrieved from http://www.fullcircle.com/goodfoodlife/2011/12/11/easy-prep-and-storage-tips-for-your-full-circle-produce