Who doesn't love Pineapple, but only if its served to you in a plate! When it comes to cutting one yourself, the inclination goes down a bit:) Its always been a challenge for me to cut a pineapple correctly, and I'm sure many of you share these inhibitions! But though it looks extremely hard to do with a few neat tricks, the right method, and a bit of concentration, you might just nail the menacing task of slicing a pineapple! Whether you want perfect round rings, cubes, or just some chunks to add to your salad, the trick lies in removing the skin and brown-spots, without losing much of the meat. So here are a few tips that'll help you cut a pineapple, hopefully, the right way!This post is largely based on the ideas presented originally in Mahalo's article that discusses tips on how to cut a pineapple. [image courtesy of wikimedia]
1. Place the pineapple on its side on a flat cutting board.
2. Using a large Butcher's knife, cut the leafy crown(top) and the base (bottom) off of the pineapple.
3. Stand the pineapple up on one end. Using a serrated knife, slice the skin off on each side, from top to bottom. When doing this, it's important to leave the greatest amount of flesh possible on the pineapple, so try not to slice off too much fruit along with the skin. Its best to do it in parts, removing a 2 inch strip each time and circle around the whole fruit.
4. Once you are done removing skin from all sides, take an apple-corer, or potato-peeler, and remove the eye spots. With the top of the peeler, gouge out each brown-spot carefully. You should be able to twist out the knobs without too much resistance.
5. For pineapple circles, simply slice the pineapple into circles of required width. Core each circle slice after cutting to remove the hard white core at the center.
6. For pineapple cubes, simply cut the pineapple into 4 pieces vertically, then cut into quarters for cubes or wedges. For each quarter, cut off the core that will be on its edge.
There, its not as difficult as it looks. Just use caution while doing it, and you'll find it's actually fun to cut a pineapple. For step-by-step pictures, check out this great article on How to Cut a Pineapple.
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