#38: Peeling Pineapples

A cyber-friend of mine was talking about her woes of wanting to eat a pineapple but not knowing how to eat it.  I thought it will be a good entry for this blog because I used to have the same problem too. It may be convenient to just pop open a can of syrup-drenshed pineapples but it already lost all the enzymes it has and just has Vitamin C that was artificially added to it.


Now there are two ways to skin a pineapple. The classic way and the easy way. Let's discuss the classic way first.



Peeling the Pineapple: The Classic Way

1. Hold the crown firmly while the fruit is lying on the cutting board. Slice off the bottom part and the crown part cleanly and flatly. The pineapple should be able to stand upright on its own on either end of the fruit.


2. Slice off a thin part of the rind in such a way that the flesh is exposed but there are still eyelets left just like on the picture at your right.



3. You will notice that the eyelets are lined in a diagonal way. With clean hands, hold the pineapple firmly in your hand and with you other hand, hold a long sharp knife (cue Psycho music here). Then slice a shallow, angled slit along the line of eyelets. I am saying it should be angled so that the end of the slit is towards the center of the eyelets. The purpose of this is so that you can...



4. ... cut a small wedge from the pineapple. Do that same thing on the other side of the eyelets. Slice a shallow slit along the other side of the eyelets in such a way that the second slit will meet the first slit. This way, you will take away the annoying parts and keeping most of the juicy pineapple flesh.

5. Slice it vertically so you'll get 8 equally-sized pieces. You can keep the core if you like or you can slice it off so you'll only get soft fleshy part like in the picture.




The Easy Way
1. Cut off the crown and the bottom part cleanly.
2. Place the pineapple in an upright position then slice off the rind thick enough to remove the eyelets and its roots. And I tell you, it's going to be a thick cut. :-)
3. After you peel the whole pineapple, slice it in wedges whether with or without the core. Pretty simple right?


Now take note that to thoroughly enjoy this fruit, you will have to completely obliterate the presence of those eyelets because they are the ones that cause the itchy-tongue sensation. That's why all the fuss is taken to take them out. If you choose the Easy way, it'll definitely take a shorter time but you will have to slice off a larger part of the pineapple to completely take them out.


It's still summer. I guess there is still time to practice this. :-D