Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Frugal Food Thursday: Mango Butter

Welcome to Frugal Food Thursday!  If you have a great frugal recipe, please link up below! 

May (and now June!) is Mango Month here at Frugal Follies!  I have two big mango trees in my backyard, and both are filled with ripening fruit.  My challenge for myself this month is to use the mangoes to make jams, sauces, and other wonderful things.  (Such a problem, huh?)

mango butter
After making and canning mango chile sauce and mango jam, I moved on to another way to save the mangoes: mango butter.  Not like the dairy stuff, but like apple butter.

Assuming that the fruit is free, making fruit butters is an economical way of saving your harvest.  It doesn't require pectin, like jam does, or any extra ingredients beyond some fruit juice.  This fruit butter recipe uses 2 cups of sugar, instead of the 7 cups that the mango jam uses.  And it cooks down to a very small amount, so you don't use as many jars as you would with a jelly or a sauce.  For me, 6 cups of chopped mango (about 15 or so mangoes) only made 3 half-pints of mango butter.

Like the mango jam recipe, I found the mango butter recipe in Blue Ribbon Preserves by Linda J. Amendt.  The author has won many, many, many blue ribbons for her jams, jellies, and preserves in county and state fairs throughout the US.  She's now retired and shares many of her secrets for award-winning canned food in this book.  I highly recommend it!

The recipe calls for ascorbic acid crystals or antioxidant crystals.  This keeps the butter from turning brown.  You can find them at health food stores.  I bought a large bottle - hope I can find more uses for it!  If you don't want the extra expense, it can be left out - but your butter won't hold that beautiful orange color for a long period of time.

And of course, please follow the instructions of a reputable canning manual if you can the butter.  If not, keep it in the refrigerator.  It is incredibly delicious!

MANGO BUTTER
(from Blue Ribbon Preserves by Linda J. Amendt)

6 cups pitted, peeled, and chopped ripe mango (about 15 mangoes - here's how to cut a mango)
1/2 cup strained fresh orange juice
1/2 cup water
2 tbsp strained fresh lemon juice
1 tsp antioxidant crystals or ascorbic acid crystals (buy at a health food store)
2 cups sugar

In an 8-quart pan, combine the mangoes, juices, water, and antioxidant crystals.

Over medium heat, bring the mixture to a boil.  Reduce the heat, cover and simmer until the mangoes are soft, about 10 minutes.  Stir frequently to prevent sticking.  Remove the pan from the heat.  Skim off any foam.

Press the mangoes and juice through a food mill or fine-meshed sieve.  Return the mango pulp to the pan.  Stir in the sugar.

Over medium-low heat, heat the mixture, stirring constantly, until the sugar is completely dissolved.  Increase the heat to medium and bring the mixture to a simmer, stirring frequently.  Reduce the heat and simmer until thick, about 10-20 minutes.  As the butter thickens, stir constantly to prevent sticking or scorching.  Remove the pan from the heat.  Skim off any foam.

Ladle the hot butter into hot jars, leaving 1/4-inch headspace.  Wipe the jar rims and threads with a clean, damp cloth.  Cover with hot lids and apply screw rings.  Process half-pint jars in a 200 degree F water bath for 10 minutes, pint jars for 15 minutes.

Makes 3-4 half-pint (8 oz) jars.

There are lots more cheap recipes posted here at Frugal FolliesClick here for the list!

Got a great frugal recipe?  Link below to your actual post, not your main page.  Please only link up recipes and other food-related posts; contest entries and other posts are not allowed and will be deleted. I'd appreciate it if you would link back to Frugal Food Thursday as well!



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19 comments:

Bibi @ Bibi's Culinary Journey June 15, 2011 at 10:56 PM  

Never had Mango Butter, but it does sounds delicious.

Hope you can stop by Foodie Wednesday and share it

http://www.frugalwannabecooks.com/2009/11/ravioli-deluca-style.html

NCSue June 16, 2011 at 6:25 AM  

Thank you for hosting.
I have a page on my site that lists more than 250 hops, memes, and photo challenges… some for each day of the week. Yours is listed there, too!
Check under the header for the link to that page. I’ve also started a BlogFrog community that focuses on hops, carnivals, memes, and photo challenges. Go to http://theblogfrog.com/1504201 to visit & participate.
NCSue

City Share June 16, 2011 at 6:57 AM  

Thanks for hosting. This week I'm sharing a recipe for pulled pork. It's a great way to transform a cheap cut of meat into a tasty meal with lots of leftovers.

Pat @ Elegantly, Gluten-Free June 16, 2011 at 8:26 AM  

Potato Salad -- this summertime standby, dressed up with agave nectar and bacon, goes with all sorts of inexpensive dishes, like hot dogs, hamburgers and grilled chicken, or grilled salmon or pulled pork. And how about some of your luscious mangoes for dessert?

Shanon Hilton June 16, 2011 at 8:58 AM  

Thanks for hosting. I've finally tried zucchini noodles, and they are fantastic and gluten free!

Mrs. No-No June 16, 2011 at 10:01 AM  

Very cool! I love mangoes :)
I found you on it's a keeper thursday! looking forward to running through your site and checking out all your frugal ideas!
:)
Carla at Mrs. No-No Knows
www.twitter.com/mrsnonoknows
www.facebook.com/mrsnonoknows

Keri at Growing in His Glory June 16, 2011 at 2:43 PM  

I love mangoes and while I have made many a batch of apple butter, I have never made mango butter. I will definitely have to try this one out! Thanks! Found you on diaper diaries.

Nicole June 17, 2011 at 10:28 AM  

Thank you so much for hosting! I can't wait to go through each recipe..so much fun! Have a great day!
~Nicole
craftysoccermom.blogspot.com

Cheerful June 17, 2011 at 10:51 AM  

looks very delicious. joining here with my paella in a flash and thanks for hosting! have a great weekend! :)

Alia June 20, 2011 at 9:28 AM  

Ooooh! It looks lovely! We Indians love our Mangoes! We make Pulps, Beverages, Jams, Marmalade, Toffees, Pickles, Puddings and a lot of other things from Mangoes!

Alia
http://aliascreativelife.blogspot.com/

Heather June 20, 2011 at 6:37 PM  

Work less hard...if it's made out of fruit, but called butter, it is a prime candidate to be made in the crock pot! Do the simmering down part in there--it'll take longer, but you won't have to stand there and stir. When it's ready, can it. I do apple butter and pear butter in my crockpot, and am about to try apricot butter, as I have 3 entire trees of ripe apricots in my backyard!

Candace June 21, 2011 at 10:52 AM  

I am so jealous that you have mango trees in your back yard. I can't think of anything more fabulous than that. Your Mango Butter sounds amazing. I would love to give that a try!

carolinaheartstrings June 21, 2011 at 12:18 PM  

Yum. That looks so wonderful. I love mangos so I would just be in hog heaven to have my own trees.

PERMANENT POSIES June 25, 2011 at 3:27 PM  

Mangos, mangos, mangos! It just is so cruel of you...hah. we love them so much over here and Mango Butter sounds delicious.

Unknown June 26, 2011 at 7:14 AM  

Mmmm! This sounds amazing! Love apple butter.. but this sounds like a way more decadent subsititute for the ordinary Thanks so much for sharing with the Pink Hippo Party .. can't wait to see what you share next week!

HaleyLeann June 29, 2011 at 1:43 PM  

Oh yum! I'm sure this is delicious! Thanks for linking up on Recipes I Can't Wait to Try!!!

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