Looking at that grenade-of-a-fruit, with its rough skin and spiny, green top can easily scare off the uneasy fruit cutter. But not to worry! Follow these simple instructions and you will be on your way to adding that golden goodness to your spodie, fruit tray, or straight into your watering mouth.

Before starting, please make sure that you are using a very sharp knife (either serrated or straight-bladed). Pineapple skin is tough and you will want to be able to cut through with as little physical effort as possible to avoid injury should the knife slip out of your control.

-Lie the fruit on its side on a sturdy cutting board.

-Cut the bottom and the top (including all of the greenery) off.
-You should be taking about an inch off of either side.
-This should create two flat surfaces that you can use to stand the pineapple up.

-Stand the pineapple up!

-Starting from the top, remove the rind from the fruit by cutting down the side about 1/4 to 1/2 inch from the outside of the fruit.

-Guide the knife slowly, while following the contour of the side, all the way down to the bottom.

-Rotate the pineapple and repeat the previous step. Make sure that you are leaving no trace of the rind (it's kind of like mowing a lawn, each new row of cutting should overlap the last a little bit).

-Continue the previous two steps until the rind is completely removed.
-The pineapple should now resemble a standing yellow football with a flat top and bottom.

-Now look down on the pineapple, and think of this circle you are looking at as if it were a pizza.

-Cut the "pizza" in half, all the way down to the cutting board.

-Leaving the cut pineapple standing, make a perpendicular cut all the way through 'long-ways' that divides the fruit into four long pieces.

-You can divide the quarters into skinnier pieces if you like by cutting each in half.

-Lay the long pieces down on their sides.

-If the part of the pineapple that was in the center, running from top-to-bottom, is especially tough, you can remove if from each long piece with your knife at this point.

-Take a few pieces at a time, and align them so that that their ends match up.

-Move 1/4 to 1/2 inch from one of the ends and slice through all the pieces at once, being sure to slide the knife away from you as you cut.

-Repeat the last step until you have cut the entire length into bite-sized pieces.

-Repeat the last three steps until the entire fruit is disassembled.

-Eat and enjoy! Left overs can be Tupperwared and refrigerated for a couple of days.

Learn more about this author, Pragmatic Pat.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.

---

Add your voice

Know something about How to cut a pineapple?
We want to hear your view. Write now!