How to Cut Fresh Pineapple for Your Party

Ever wonder what the right way is to cut a pineapple?  If you go to Taiwan, you will find fruit vendors with fruit carts on the street corners.  They have lots of fruit that they will sell to you, and will cut it up for you just like the butcher does meat.

The vendors in Taiwan are professionals, so we’ve added a few safety tips to this process.  First, you need a big very sharp knife.  A big square knife is the best – sometimes called a cleaver.  You can pick one up cheaply in an Asian market.  They are used for almost everything in Asian cooking.

 

How to Cut Up a Pineapple

 

To begin, the guy on a corner in Taiwan takes the pineapple in his left hand and the knife in his right hand.  For safety’s sake, we will put the pineapple on a cutting board.  Keeping your fingers well out of the way, and holding the pineapple with one hand, chop off the top of the pineapple where the leaves are.  You want to chop far enough from the top to remove all of the green part, but not too much to waste fruit.  About an inch from the top should work.

After you chop off the top, turn the pineapple around and chop off the bottom – same as before, about an inch from the end.  With both ends gone, stand the pineapple up on one end and cut off the skin from the sides from top to bottom, chopping in one smooth motion as you go around the pineapple.  If you leave a few ‘eyes,’ you can trim it down a little more.

Now with the pineapple standing up again on the cutting board, cut it in half.  Then make a v-shaped incision in the middle of each half to remove the core.  From there you can slice or chop the fruit however you would like to serve it.

A Few Pineapple-Related Tips:

When buying fresh pineapple, you can tell if it is ripe if you can easily pull a leaf from the top.  If you pull on a leaf and it won’t come out, the pineapple is not ripe yet.

 

Make sure that if you use a wooden cutting board, you didn’t just use it for chopping onions or garlic – the pineapple will pick up the flavor.

Don’t leave any eyes or small pieces of skin on the pineapple – the skin is hard and it will scratch your throat as you swallow.

Some people eat the core, but it is not recommended as it can be sharp and cut your mouth and tongue.

Enjoy your new found skill and all that yummy pineapple you can now eat!

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