We love the sweet-sour taste of pineapple just about anytime, but it has particular appeal during the dog days of winter. You can buy pre-cut pineapple from the store, but it's fresher and more economical to buy a whole one and cut it yourself. Here's how!
Techniques: How to Cut a Pineapple
Pick a pineapple that has evenly shaped "eyes" on the skin. Look for ones that are mostly yellow - we've found that the more yellow they are, the sweeter they are. Completely green pineapples are under-ripe (our pineapple here was actually a bit under-ripe). You can also tell if a pineapple is ripe if it has a sweet smell near the base and if the fronds on top are easy to pull out.
There are many ways you could go about cutting into this prickly fruit, but we've found this one to be the easiest and safest for us. As always, start with a sharp knife!
Cut off the top and bottom of the fruit. This gets rid of the big fronds and creates a stable cutting base.
Trim off the tough outer skin. Work your way around the pineapple in strips, cutting deep enough to remove the "eyes" but saving as much of the flesh as possible. After you're done, trim off any bits you may have missed.
Cut the the pineapple in half and then in quarters from top to bottom.
Stand a quarter on its end and cut out the tough inner core by cutting off the tip of the triangle. If the quarter feels too wobbly to do this, you can also lay it flat on the cutting board and trim out the core by cutting into the wedge at an angle.
Now you can cut the pineapple as large or small as you like! For wedges, just slice this quarter pineapple along the bias. For smaller, bite-sized pieces, cut it several times down the length and then slice into small pieces.
There you have it! And don't forget, those trimmings are great to throw in the compost bin if you're keeping one.
What's your favorite way to eat pineapple?
Related: Gallery: How to Peel Things
(Images: Emma Christensen for the Kitchn)
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Tips & Techniques, Fruits and Vegetables, Ingredients - Fruit, how to, pineapple, knife skills, pinappleRelated Links
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Call me lazy, or call me a lover of cool gadgets, but the Vacu vin Pineapple corer is A-MAZING!
http://www.amazon.com/Vacu-Vin-Pineapple-Easy-Slicer/dp/B00005AS57
Sure, it wastes a bit of pineapple if you get a wider pina, but you end up with plenty of fresh pineapple juice after you're done twisting AND a handy bowl to put salsa in.
view benayse's profile
I use a spiral cut technique when preparing pineapple. I make shallower cuts removing the skin and leaving the eyes on the fruit. I then make a series of V cuts along the surface of the pineapple removing the eyes. It is very beautiful when it is done. A little more work but I find the sweetest part of the fruit is the part that is cut away when using a normal slicing technique.
view Comicgeek's profile
I do it the same way except that I leave the leafy part for last using it as a handle while I'm cutting off the sides.
view sally599's profile
I use the same spiral technique as Comicgeek to remove the eyes. A friend said it's a typically east Asian technique.
view Michelle of Montreal's profile
The tough, inner core that most people throw out is my most favorite part of the pineapple.
view laila's profile
My mother is from a small coastal town in Central America that prides itself on its pineapples. My grandmother would always say that you could tell a townsperson by the way they cut the pineapple: holding it by the stem/leafy bit and taking a machete to the rest of it. Needless, to say few of us have a machete laying around in our kitchen these days, but I, like sally599 and my grandmother, find it useful to leave the stem 'til last. It makes for a good handle.
view morphomercedes's profile
Martha Stewart has a quick method to remove the top. Grab the stem by the neck and twist the top off. It comes off like a dream leaving only a shallow dent in the pineapple. It's much easier twisting the top than cutting it off.
view lona's profile
My mom saves the cores to use in smooties. It gives pineapple taste and provides fiber and texture.
view wunami's profile