‘By tearing off the skin with your teeth’: The right way to eat mangoes according to Victorian women

British settlers in India under the British Raj may not have eaten fresh mangoes with their hands, but they did develop a taste for preserved mangoes in the form of chutneys. Though the details were never documented, Major Grey’s Chutney was reputedly created by a 19th-century British Army officer who served in British India. A mild condiment available widely in the United States from several manufacturers, its ingredients include mango, raisins, vinegar, lime juice, onion, tamarind extract, sweeteners and various spices. Chutneys are an essential element of the “Ploughman’s lunch”, an English cold meal based on bread, cheese and sweet/sour condiments, originally conceived for workmen to take out into the fields.

Intrepid Victorian women wrote about their encounters with the mango in locations where it grows. Botanical explorer, artist and worldwide traveller Marianne North documented the mango tree, its flowers and its fruit in several of her paintings, including one created in India in the 1870s titled Foliage and Flowers of the Clove, Fruit of the Mango and Hindoo God of Wisdom. She presented more than 900 works of art to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in the 1880s. In her notes, she writes, “The Mango (Mangifera indica L) is generally regarded as one...

Read more

News