Here you will find simple instructions for peeling and cut pineapple and valuable tips for storage.
Around the middle of the 19th century, the pineapple was considered a luxury item and was reserved for the aristocracy and the rich. Because it was only with the invention of the steamship that fresh fruits could be transported to Europe in large quantities. Today you can buy tropical fruit in every well-stocked supermarket. It is available fresh all year round. Once the pineapple has been harvested, it does not ripen and can be processed or consumed immediately after purchase.
And because the tropical fruit not only scores with many vitamins, minerals, and trace elements but also has approximately the same energy value as an apple with 55 calories per 100 grams, you should not hesitate long when purchasing. To stick with the comparison with the domestic apple, the pineapple has a small disadvantage: it is surrounded by a hard shell that you cannot eat with you. The best way to peel, cut, and store this healthy tropical fruit is what you will find out if you read on.
Peel the pineapple
Anyone who only knows pineapple from a can will be surprised by the fruity taste of the fresh fruit. However, to get to the sweet, edible pulp, you need to remove the skin first. Even if it is not edible, it does not have to end up in the trash. A fruity-sweet tea can prepare from the pineapple bowl. And a fermented drink to rebuild the intestinal flora can also conjure up from it.
Proceed as follows to cut a pineapple:
Place the tropical fruit on a sufficiently large cutting board.
Use a large, sharp, serrated knife to remove the green leaves from one end of the fruit first. To do this, simply cut off a small slice of the pineapple, similar to cutting a loaf of bread.
You now remove the only part of the pineapple that cannot use any further. However, you should not dispose of the leaves immediately, because they can still use as exotic decorations.
At the other end, the “nodule” is also cut straight off so that there is a standing area.
Now place the pineapple upright on the cutting board.
Now the peel can cut off in strips from top to bottom with the knife. Be a bit generous when doing this. Especially if you want to continue using the peel, it doesn’t hurt if a bit of pulp sticks to it.
As a rule, brown eyes can still see on the tropical fruit even after peeling. Since the brown spots belong to the skin, they are correspondingly hard and woody. To remove them, you can use a small ball cutter like the one used for watermelon balls.
If you don’t have a ball cutter, make an incline on the tropical fruit on every brown spot from two sides. This makes it easy to cut out the woody eyes.
If you would like to continue using the pineapple peel for a tea or a fermented drink, you should definitely purchase an organic pineapple. Only then can you be sure that there are no harmful substances on the shell.
Prepare pineapple tea:
For pineapple tea, which supposes to help you lose weight, boil the peel of the fruit with a liter of water. The leaves cannot use, but the woody stalk in the middle of the fruit can also use to make tea. To get to the stalk, you have to cut the pineapple
Cutting pineapple: instructions
Depending on whether you want to conjure up a decoration for cocktails with the fresh tropical fruit, top a Hawaiian toast or serve a chicken curry, the pineapple is cut into cubes or rings. To use the fruit decoratively, cut rings. If it overcooks anyway, choose cubes.
Rings: First, peel the pineapple as described above. Make sure that you also remove the brown, woody eyes completely, because it is not fun to feel the hard parts between your teeth while eating. Then put the fruit back on the cutting board and cut it into slices one to two centimeters thick.
With a small, round cookie cutter, cut out the woody middle part, the stalk, from each slice. Choose the mold so large that it just fits around the woody middle part. Without trying, you can tell the hard part by the fact that the fruit is a little lighter at this point. The soft flesh, on the other hand, is a little more yellow.
Then place the mold exactly over the middle part and press it firmly into the pulp. Then turn it around once and pull the mold back out of the pineapple slice. Now the woody part can easily remove as a round, small disc. What remains is the ready-to-eat pineapple ring.
Cut the pineapple into cubes:
For the pineapple cubes, too, it makes sense to peel the fruit first, as described above. Then proceed as follows:
- Place the tropical fruit upright on the cutting board.
- Using a large knife, cut the pineapple in half from top to bottom.
- Then divide the two halves lengthways again so that you have four equally sized pieces in front of you.
- Now you can conveniently cut the woody middle part from each quarter from top to bottom with a small, sharp knife.
- Halve the “de-lumbered” quarters again so that you get narrow, long eighth-note slices.
- Place the eighth notes on the cutting board and cut them first into strips and then into bite-sized cubes.
- Remember, the smaller the cubes, the faster the pineapple will cook.
Cut the pineapple decoratively
Actually, it is a shame that the pineapple has to peeled for consumption, because its unusual peel and the small, slender, green leaves make a beautiful decoration. If you want to present the tropical fruit decoratively on the buffet or serve it nicely sliced as a dessert, you should by no means do without the natural ornamentation of the fruit.
And this is how it’s done:
- Do not peel the fruit, but place the pineapple unpeeled on a large cutting board.
- First, cut straight the stalk that is on the opposite side of the leaves. This means that you remove the end piece of the fruit as if you were cutting a loaf of bread.
- Now place the tropical fruit on the cut surface and use a large, sharp knife to cut it into four equal pieces from top to bottom.
- Then use a smaller knife to remove the hard middle part from each of the quarters (= the long, point side is cut off about 0.5 centimeters wide).
- Then carefully remove the pulp from the skin with a small knife. To do this, place a quarter in front of you on the cutting board. Start at the left or right end and run the small knife close to the skin between the pulp and the skin to the middle of the pineapple wedge. Rotate the quarter 180 degrees and repeat the process.
- Now you can remove the pulp from the skin in one piece.
- After lifting the edible pineapple meat out of the shell for testing, put it back in and cut it into 1.5 cm thick slices. Make sure that you only cut the meat, not the shell.
- Now use a little trick to create four pineapple boats. To do this, simply pull the slices alternately a little to the left or a little to the right over the bowl to the outside.
If you want to use the pineapple for cocktails, sangria or as a mug for a fruit quark, cut the unpeeled fruit as follows:
- Use a large, sharp knife with no point.
- Place the unpeeled tropical fruit on a large cutting board and cut off the end with the leaves in the form of a slice. Put this disc aside, it will still need.
- Then place the pineapple upright on the board with the cut side up.
- Now run the knife all around between the pulp and the skin. In doing so, stick the large knife down as far as possible. But make sure that you do not pierce the shell, otherwise, the liquid will run out afterward.
- In order to completely loosen the pulp from the side, pierce the fruit from above with a large meat fork.
- Use the fork to turn the meat removed from the edge once around itself. So that it also loosens from the bottom.
- Then lift it out of the shell in one piece. And the pineapple cup is ready, which you can fill with a cocktail, sangria, or quark cream. Put the cut end with the leaves on top as a lid.
Also Read: How to open a coconut
