Page 133 - เธญเธฒเธซเธฒเธฃเน„เธ—เธข

Fresh-cut Mangosteens

compiled by Ass. Prof. Suebpong Thammachat

Fresh-cut mangosteens are made by cutting the raw mangosteen peels from mangosteen
pulps, while the pulps and seeds still remain beautiful and appetizing. Gardeners select mangosteens
with abnormal growth to make this kind of food. For example, the mangosteen trees give too many
fruits or their fruit sizes are too small. Due to that selection, other fruits can reach their maturity.
After that, the selected mangosteens are processed to be fresh-cut mangosteens wherein tastes
are different from ripe mangosteens.
The history of fresh-cut mangosteens came from a housewife living in a railway station
community in Nakhon Si Thammarat. It was told that the poor housewife found raw mangosteens
left on the road, so she brought them back home and peeled them. Then, she soaked these
mangosteens in salt water to remove the rubber of mangosteens which were dangerous if eaten.
With this process, fresh-cut mangosteens were edible without danger and delicious. From that
day, she made fresh-cut mangosteens for her family. When her neighbours tried these fresh-cut
mangosteens, they liked their taste and made the fresh-cut mangosteens popular. After that,
this housewife made these fresh-cut mangosteens to earn her living in her family and taught her
descendants how to make this kind of food.
Fresh-cut mangosteens are made from raw mangosteens wherein the peels are green and
are 25 days old. It was known as โ€œthe mangosteens before the harvest timeโ€. At this stage, the
mangosteen fruits are a bit larger and look like flowers indicating how many seeds there are for
each fruit.
The methods of making fresh-cut mangosteens are firstly to clean raw mangosteens, then
use a sharp medium knife to cut their peels. After that use a carving knife or a small knife to cut
each part of their peels elaborately and quickly without cutting their pulps and turning them into
red. After having peeled them, put their fruits into salt water and leave them until salt water is
thoroughly absorbed into the fruits. Repeat this step 2 or 3 times so that fresh-cut mangosteens
become white and crunchy and have no rubber. Then, stick 3-4 fruits per stick depending on the

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Thai Food : Thai Cultural Heritage ๆณฐๅผๆ–™็†-ไผ ็ปŸ้ฅฎ้ฃŸๆ–‡ๅŒ–้—ไบง