How to Eat a Pineapple by Pulling it Apart

Think you know how to eat a pineapple? Chances are you've been doing it wrong your whole life. Because instead of slicing it, it's possible to actually pull apart a fresh pineapple!

A few years ago I watched someone magically pull perfect, bite sizes pieces of pineapple off of the fruit without using a knife, peeling it or having her nails filled or anything???

If you've been living in a cave (with no internet) you may not have seen it but I can assure you it was a BIG thing when this video came out.  Everyone was sharing and spreading it around like the stomach flu on a cruise ship.

This revelation wasn't like not knowing how to peel a peach or prep a leek. Even if you don't actually know the trick to doing those things, they know there is some sort of trick to peeling a peach. You know the trick exists. (it's dipping them in boiling water for a minute by the way)

How was it possible none of us knew how to eat a pineapple??! If we don't know how to pull apart a pineapple what else don't we know?

In an attempt to prove we're not as dumb as corn chips, I found out a couple of things about that video which I'll tell you about in a moment.  But first, here's my attempt at the pineapple trick.

How to Pull Apart a Pineapple

So, it is something that can be done.  Technically.  It's just a slightly juicier experience than most of us would like to have.

Steps

1. With a paring knife cut the pineapple top off in a jagged line, following the pattern of the pineapple sections.

2. Grab a section of pineapple with your thumb and index finger and pull it towards the core of the pineapple. It will lift away in a chunk.

What is the Right Way to Eat a Pineapple?

Well it guess it depends on how fond of mess and stickiness and ants crawling up your arm. 

If you like pineapple juice across your kitchen, and stickiness running down your forearm until it drips off your elbow attracting the nest of ants that live under your dishwasher then pulling apart a pineapple is the right way to eat it.  Just wedge your thumb under each piece (node? chunk? hunk?) and lift it up away from the core. You might need to score the pineapple first.

If you aren't into that sort of thing, just slice it like you normally do.

The Easy Peeler Pineapple

After a tiny bit or research I found out that there are different varieties of pineapples. One of those varieties is called the Tainung No. 4.  It's known as the Easy Peeler Pineapple, and it has very little fibre, is mostly fleshy and ISN'T very juicy.  And as far as I can tell you can only get it in Taiwan.  More research led me to this article that concurs, the pineapple in the video is probably a very specific type of pineapple.

Having said that, this viral TikTok / Instagram hack did work on a regular pineapple and turned it into a snack-able food that you can just set out and pick pieces from.

It's a good trick. Not as good as the how to open a package of spaghetti trick, but good nonetheless. And it certainly worked better than how to open a wine bottle with a shoe and a tree trunk.

TIPS

It has to be a ripe pineapple. An unripe one just won't pull apart.  But if it's tooooo ripe then it'll be too mushy to pull apart as well. It's a conundrum.

Like a bowl of potato chips (if you went to the grocery store to buy potato chips, but they were out of them, and you were forced to buy a stupid pineapple.)

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