Pickled Papaya
Practical Action
Recipe
Prepared papaya
Sugar
Ground garlic
Ground ginger
Ground mustard seed
Ground fennel seed
Ground cumin seed
Chilli powder
Saffron powder or turmeric powder
Salt
Acetic acid (80%)
Lime juice
54%
36%
3%
0.5%
0.3%
0.3%
0.4%
0.8%
0.1 %
2%
0.3%
2%
27kg
18kg
1.5kg
250g
150g
150g
200g
400g
50g
1kg
150g
1kg
If limes are not available when the papaya is in season, the juice can be extracted and stored in
bulk until it is required. Sulphur dioxide or benzoic acid (1000-1500ppm) is added to preserve
it. Garlic can be ground in bulk and kept for long periods by mixing it with the salt which is
required in the recipe.
To make 100 x 1lb (450g) jars of papaya pickle requires approximately 18kg of sugar and 27kg
of green papaya.
Method
Wash the whole papaya in clean water and discard any which is bad.
Remove the skin with a stainless steel knife. Cut the fruit into longitudinal segments and
remove the seeds, then cut the segments into very small pieces (5mm cubes). This can be done
by hand or more quickly using a fruit dicing machine such as the Kenwood dicer.
Stainless steel equipment is preferred for fruit as it does not stain the flesh and does not react
with the acidity of the juice. If stainless steel is not available, make sure the knives and spoons
are not rusted.
Mix the papaya pieces with the sugar in a stainless steel saucepan. Leave the mixture for 10
minutes so the sugar draws out the water from the fruit pieces. Boil the mixture for 10 minutes
to evaporate off some of the water from the papaya, and soften the fruit pieces. Add all the dry
spices to the saucepan and continue cooking. Add the lime juice and acetic acid at the end of
the cooking process. This prevents the loss of volatiles, which is very important in the case of
the acetic acid.
The whole batch should be boiled down to 90% of the initial total weight of the ingredients in
the saucepan. To do this, weigh the saucepan before starting to boil and at intervals until it is
90% of the original weight. With practice, an experienced processor will know how long to boil
for and the desired consistency of the pickle. This will ensure that the pickle will have the
correct consistency. Boiling down to the same finishing weight means that the same number of
jars will be filled each time and produce a standard product.
Hot fill the pickle into jars which have been cleaned and steam sterilised. Make sure the jars are
still hot so they do not crack when they are filled. The lip of the jar should be clean and dry
(wipe with clean tissue paper or steam) before placing the lid on it. Polythene bags do not need
to be steamed inside as they are usually clean. Do not use recycled polythene bags. The pickle
should not be hotter than 90°C as this will soften the polythene. When filling the bags make sure
that the pickle does not come into contact with the top of the bag otherwise it will not heat seal.
The simplest way to do this is to use a wide neck funnel (which the pickle can be pushed down
through) which slips inside a tube placed in the opening of the bag. The hot filling of the pickle
into hermetically sealed jars will preserve the product until the jar is opened.
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