Dumb Question: How Can You Tell When A Pineapple Is Ripe?

[IveyLeaguer]

Thanks in advance.

[siduri]

uh, smell? i usually go by that. and that the skin is more yellow than green. But probably tropics-living people will tell me that i've never eaten a ripe pineapple.

[Jock]

First of all it isn't a dumb question. You don't know it till you know it!

I agree with Siduri; smell is the first thing i go for. It should smell like - well - a pineapple, fruity and sweet. Feel it too. If it is squishy in places it is beginning to spoil and there will be a lot of waste as you cut away the bad bits.

I might be wrong here but I think the pineapple is one of those fruits which do not continue to ripen after they have been picked. So you should try to find out where it came from and if it is a reputable producer.

I was talking to a Hawaiian the other day who says that Pineapples are no longer a major product on the islands. Dole is winding it's operation down in that part of the world. Most of our pineapples come from South America these days.

Jock

[cookie jim]

what usualy works for me is to pull a leaf from the last to next last row,if it pulls out easily it is probably ripe.I have never been aproched by anyone in the store for this practice...good cookin...cookie

[KYHeirloomer]

That's what I was always taught, Cookie. And it's never failed me.

[DC Sunshine]

Ditto Cookie and KYH - I don't think they ripen once picked either, need to source them from as close by as possible I guess when they're seasonal in that area

[Brianthecook]

Originally Posted by cookie jim

what usualy works for me is to pull a leaf from the last to next last row,if it pulls out easily it is probably ripe.I have never been aproched by anyone in the store for this practice...good cookin...cookie

Jim is right.

[Green Lady]

I've always pulled a leaf too. I found that works well.

I think when you rely on the smell alone, it might be overly ripe.

[chefbyvideo]

Pick a single leaf towards the middle of the pineapple and try pulling on it. If it releases with little effort the pineapple is ripe. It's an old trick from an old Puerto Rican man I know. Stick with golden pineapples and I promise you won't have any problems with it being under ripe.

Check out my website chefbyvideo.com for 8 free videos of common kitchen mistakes cooks make.

[siduri]

Pulling the leaf is good, however i suggest you also smell it. I had a pineapple once that released the leaves easily, but they smelled moldy. The pineapple was rotten! beware. pull and smell.

[oldschool1982]

Ahhh What the heck. I'll try this one.

I had always been taught the leaf thing as most of ya'll have stated. That was until I went to Hawaii. We visited a pineapple plantation on our Honeymoon on the Island of Lānaʻi. There we were told that the ripeness was determined by striking the bottom of the pineapple with your open palm and if the top fell off it was ripe.
I can't personally dismiss nor approve this as the "one tried and true method" to determine such but it has proven to be more acurate than the leaf. Then again if you compare the pineapples we are sold/served here in the states to those that are served in Hawaii........ We have never experienced even close to ripe.