How to Cut Up a Pineapple

In college I worked in a prep kitchen at one of our dining halls.  My job was to cut up fruits and vegetables, generally: pineapple, cantaloupe, honeydew melon, green peppers, onions, and anything else the kitchen might need. It wasn't uncommon to walk into work and have 40 pineapples to cut up or a bushel of green peppers waiting for me.  It wasn't necessarily my favorite job, but it allowed me to become pretty good at prepping foods, especially tricky ones like pineapple.  When I came home from college, my mother would actually buy pineapples for me to cut up for her.  It's really quite easy once you get the hang of it and then you will never have to buy a pre-cut pineapple at the grocery store, which are sometimes twice the cost of a whole one!


Here's what you do.  Step one, take your pineapple and lay it down sideways on your cutting board. 

Hold the pineapple with your non-dominant hand and cut off the top and bottom with your other hand.  With a sharp knife, it shouldn't be too hard to cut through.

Stand the pineapple upright and slice the pineapple in half, from top to bottom.  Then turn it 90 degrees and make another cut from top to bottom, creating 4 equal pieces.

Take one quadrant and slice off the inner core, which is usually 1/2 - 1 inch thick on the pointy end of the pineapple quadrant.  The core is hard, lighter than the pineapple "flesh" and not generally eaten.  If you don't cut it all off the first time, you can just make another cut to get it all.  Do this to all four pieces.

Take one of the quadrants and lay it on the cutting board, flesh side up.  You're going to take your knife and make a diagonal slice on each side, separating the flesh from rind.  Repeat with other 3 pieces.

Cut pineapple flesh down the middle, length-wise. Repeat with other 3 pieces.

Turn pineapple length-wise and slice into smaller pieces.  I store my cut up pineapple in plastic food-storage containers in the refrigerator.  Depending on how ripe your pineapple is, it should last a few days to up to a week. 

How easy was that?  Believe me, once you do it a few times, it'll become second nature and you won't even have to think about it .  Good Luck!

xoxo Melissa