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A tool for scooping out a pineapple

post #1 of 8
4/27/07 at 6:02pm
Thread Starter 
Hello All;
I know my title sounds funny but I didn't know how else to describe it. Today, I attended a pot luck party at work and I wanted to impress :-) everyone with my chef's skills so I decided to make a Hawaiian Fruit Salad I found on the internet - Hawaiian Fruit Salad

If you click on the picture, you'll see that they cut a third out of the pinteapple and scoop out the inside which they replace with the fruit salad.

I tried this and I did OK but I wasn't very precise since I used a small paring knife and a spoon to scoop out the material.

I wonder - does anyone know if a tool is available to make this task of making a pineapple bowl much easier, much less messier, and much nicer looking ? Btw - "Much nicer looking" is the biggest reason I'm seeking such a tool. It seems that something should be available. I'm sure I wasn't the first one who thought about this.

I bought a very effective tool from Bed, Bath, and Beyond to Core a pineapple and spiral slice the inside but that takes out the center which isn't what I want to do in this case. So I need a different kind of tool - or perhaps even just a more effective method.

Thanks for any advice you can provide.

Tim
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post #2 of 8
4/27/07 at 9:28pm
I did 6 of these last week...knife and scrape with a wide rice spoon.
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post #3 of 8
4/27/07 at 11:00pm
I'm partial to a grapefruit knife.

Flexible, serrated and cheap.
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post #4 of 8
4/28/07 at 8:09am
W-S sells something called the Pineapple Easy Slicer. It cores & slices the fruit and leaves the shell intact.
Williams-Sonoma | Catalog
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post #5 of 8
4/28/07 at 12:01pm
It seems that, for me at least, the problem with such things is that they sound like a great idea at first because, for example, you've got to scoop a pineapple, but in truth you may hardly, if ever, need it again. Better, IMO, to find something you already have and learn to use it for the specialty jobs.

Shel
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post #6 of 8
4/28/07 at 12:31pm
Thread Starter 
Thanks immensely for everyone's great responses ...

shakeandbake - I'm impressed with how many of these you did last week :-) !

Crema - I have exactly what you suggested but the problem is that it makes a hole exactly in the center and I don't think I want to cut that far down.

castironchef - Your idea seems more along the lines of what I'd want to get. And i like the fact that they're cheap since I've found them for $10 - $15.

Shel - I tried using a paring knife and spoon as the recipe suggested and while this worked fairly good, I thought I'd check into an alternate method that may produce a neater job. I may actually have a need to do this several times a year and while not as often as a professional chef, I would be willing to spend $10 - $15 to try something that may work better as castironchef suggested.

Tim
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post #7 of 8
4/29/07 at 8:32pm
Why not use a professional grade portion scoop/ice-cream scoop/cookie scoop. They come in a variety of sizes so you could choose one that would work. I say professional because they have metal scoops that would probably be sharper on the core. I use small ones to core pears, and big ones to clean pumkin and squashes. These have many uses because they also can be used to portion cookies, or to scoop the salad back into now empy shell.
"Just can't wait to get on the road again."
Willie Nelson
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post #8 of 8
5/2/07 at 5:01pm
Thread Starter 
That sounds like another good idea, Breton Beats provided the scoop has a fairly sharp edge which I assume it does. When I tried to use a spoon to scoop out the pineapple a week ago, it just didn't work very well.

Tim
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