The Fancy Way To Cut Pineapple Is Easier Than You Think

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

Cutting a pineapple can feel like a challenging mission even with the sharpest of knives, tools, and techniques. While you could use a specially-made pineapple corer and slicer to get to that sweet yellow flesh faster, this bit of culinary kit requires a little manual dexterity and is tricky to store away. Instead, try using a petite ring cutter. This unassuming tool makes preparing rounds of pineapple an absolute breeze. Better yet, you can cut the rings into fancy pineapple bites that can be soaked in booze and zhuzhed up with cherries and coconut to serve as party appetizers.

Some swear that the most effective way to cut a pineapple is to stand it upright and make four slices around the core. However, this results in uneven chunks and slices as well as extra waste around the central fibrous middle. Rather, you should top and tail your peeled pineapple, lay it horizontally on your cutting board, and cut it into identically sized slices. Next, take each slice lying on the board and use your ring cutter to remove the core before cutting the remaining flesh into quarters. If you don't have a ring cutter, a cookie cutter works equally as well. You can use a paring knife to cut out the center, if needed, too. Once your pineapple is chopped, you can load it onto chicken skewers, combine it into a cake batter, or scatter it over steak tacos.

The benefit of the ring cutter technique is that each piece of pineapple is guaranteed to be the same size. Moreover, if you want to serve your pineapple pieces as upmarket hors d'oeuvres with chunks of cheese or wrapped in salty prosciutto, their identical size will make for uniform bites that you can skewer with cocktail sticks.

No matter how you choose to serve your fruit, don't throw out your pineapple's core — use it for a salad topping. Its bright flavor and firm texture make it perfect for chopping up and tossing onto a hearty salad that's heavy on the root veggies. It can also be grated and mixed into a homemade coleslaw. Though it may have a tougher mouthfeel, it's perfectly safe to eat the core of a pineapple. Plus, it's rich in fiber and an enzyme called bromelain, which is known to reduce swelling and aid digestion. Some of the other best uses for leftover pineapple cores are to puree them to make fruit popsicles or add them, thinly sliced, into cold drinks to lend a tropical flavor.