Working with Pineapple

You can have a little reminder of your tropical destinations and amazing vacations at home any time when you know how to choose and cut fresh pineapple and coconut the right way. Learn about pineapple here, and then check out tips on coconut, too.

When you're picking a pineapple, use your nose. The smell of the pineapple tells you more about the flavor than anything else. Some pineapples will be old and smell almost moldy; others get picked too early, and they will smell woody. Smell all the pineapples in the store if you need to—you want one that smells sweet. Also make sure that your pineapple doesn't have any soft spots or bruises.

Once you've got your perfect pineapple home, cutting a pineapple isn't very difficult.

1. Lay your pineapple on its side on a cutting board.
2. Using a sharp knife, cut off the green top.
3. Slice off about 1/4 to 1/2 inch at the top and bottom of your pineapple so you have two flat ends.
4. Stand your pineapple up on one of the flat ends and cut off the brown skin in strips from top to bottom all the way around.
5. If you find that there are still little specks of the skin left, you can use the tip of your knife to cut them out. If your pineapple has deep eyes of skin in the flesh, you can cut a diagonal V to remove several eyes at one time.
6. Lay the pineapple back down on its side and cut it into circles. You can make these as thick or as thin as you'd like.
7. If your pineapple has a hard core, you'll also need to cut out the center of each circle before you eat it.
8. Eat your pineapple right away.