Mango Salsa

Choose ripe, mature fruit of ideal quality for eating fresh or cooking. They should not be mushy, but they also should not be rock hard: just as ripe as you would eat them fresh. You can also use solid green mangoes. Select firm, non-fibrous fruit. Caution: Handling green mangoes may irritate the skin of some people in the same way as poison ivy. (They belong to the same plant family.) To avoid this reaction, wear plastic gloves while working with raw green mango. Do not touch your face, lips or eyes after touching or cutting green mangoes until all traces are washed away. Wash and sterilize the jars and lids. Wash the mangoes in plain cold or lukewarm water. Peel the Mangoes: Green mangoes are fairly firm, so a regular vegetable peeler works pretty well. This is probably the most tedious step of the process, though. Cut up the mangoes: Cut out any brown spots and mushy areas. Slice the mangoes in 1/4 thick slices! It just takes practice to figure out where the pit is. the pit is sort of flat, rather than egg-shaped, so you'll get more flesh of some parts of the mango than others. Then chop the mango slices up into ? to ?-inch cubes. Add the spices -- To the 6 cups of diced mangoes, add the spices. Cook the mango salsa: Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring to dissolve sugar and mix the spices. Reduce to simmering, and simmer 5 minutes. We don't want to overcook this! Fill the jars: Wipe rim and screw threads with a clean damp cloth. Add lid, screw band and tighten firmly and evenly. Do not over tighten. Process the jars in the water bath: Put the sealed jars in the canner and keep them cover with at least 1 inch of water and boiling. Boil them for at least 20 minutes (and no more than 30 min). Remove and cool: Lift the jars out of the water and let them cool without touching or bumping them in a draft-free place (usually takes overnight), here they won't be bumped. You can then remove the rings if you like. Once the jars are cool, you can check that they are sealed verifying that the lid has been sucked down. Just press in the center, gently, with your finger. If it pops up and down (often making a popping sound), it is not sealed. If you put the jar in the refrigerator right away, you can still use it. Some people replace the lid and reprocess the jar, then that's a bit iffy. If you heat the contents back up, re-jar them (with a new lid) and the full time in the canner, it's usually ok. Mangoes, pears and apples may also show a blue, red or pink color change after canning. This is the result of natural chemical changes that sometimes occur as fruits are heated. It is harmless and won't affect flavor! Also, avoid storing canned food near heat sources such as a furnace, water heater, hot water or sunny areas. Jars need to be kept cool and dark for longer storage life and to protect against spoilage. Be sure to store in a dry place. If the lid or band rusts, that can cause the seal to break.