Why some Hoosiers call green peppers mangoes

My Illinois-bred co-worker Joe Tamborello was beside himself when he found out that some Hoosiers refer to green peppers as mangoes. The look on his face was that akin to finding out Santa wasn’t real. 

This is not to say that all Hoosiers refer to them this way - it's a generational and even a geographic phenomenon. Grocery stores tried to appease both camps by advertising "green mango peppers." 

Even as far back as the early 1900s, Hoosiers were flummoxed by the mango/green pepper duality. A 1903 Indianapolis Star article which explains quite nicely that Hoosiers aren’t total rubes.

Mangoes-what are they? At themarket, an order for mangoes will be filled with green peppers, which are commonly called mango peppers, in Indiana at least.

In restaurants and on dining cars on the bills of fare frequently include mangoes or “pickled mangoes” and an order for these will bring a small pickled fruit about the size of an egg, stringy inside and full of seeds.

“What is a mango?” was asked of Mr. Faulkner, of the Faulkner-Webb Company, which makes a specialty of pickling mangoes. His statement was that a mango is a green pepper stuffed with cabbage and mixed, minced picket, highly spiced and whole pickled together.”

Mango recipe:Farro salad with mango and cashews

Pepper recipe:Quinoa recipe for vegetarian stuffed peppers

People were still in a culinary quandary in 1991. Indianapolis Star food writer Donna Segal set out on her own quest to answer the question: Why do we call green peppers mangoes?

Food historian Karen Hess and author of Martha Washington’s Book ofCookery told Segal that in 18th-century England there was a demand for Indian-style pickles like fruit mangos stuffed with spices and kept in a vinegar brine. Mangoes weren’t available in England so they used substitutes such as green peppers. By way of English cookbooks printed in America, the recipe for stuffed mangoes using peppers spread across America. 

Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana use the dual name, possibly because of the large Amish settlements (fond of pickling) in those states. As time passed, even unstuffed peppers continued to be called mangoes. 

So, technically, it’s not our fault, but rather the British. 

Keep calm and mango on.