Saturday, August 2, 2008

Pineapple 101

I'm not sure why it's happening now, but a lot of people are asking me how to prep a pineapple. Surely there are dozens of ways to do it; here's one that works for me. Just for grins, I timed myself once at this. It took 56 seconds from whole pineapple to fully cut up pineapple, so you know that it is an easy method.

First, slice the top and bottom off the pineapple. You can see that I am using my serrated bread knife. It works great for this application.

Next, stand the pineapple on its bottom. When cutting things, it's always important to create a stable base for yourself so that the item that you are cutting does not rock. That's why you sliced off the bottom of the pinepple.

Slice from the top of the pineapple to the bottom. Go deep enough into the pineapple to remove the bulk of the pits and seeds. Most beginners are afraid of slicing too deeply into the pineapple.

Slice the skin off all the way around the pineapple. Trim any bits that you might have missed.

Slice the pineapple in half from top to bottom. Then lay one of the halves down on the cutting board—flat side down; remember the stable base you always want to have—and then quarter the half from top to bottom.

Holding your knife on a 45 degree angle to vertical, remove the core from each quarter.

When you've removed the core, lay the quartered pineapple on the flat side you've just created by removing the core.

Slice each quarter into three strips from top to bottom.

Chop the strips into chunks.

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