Pineapple

Ananas comosus · Tropical fruit

40 pairings

The pineapple (Ananas comosus) is the multiple fruit of a tropical bromeliad — a spiky, barrel-shaped cylinder of golden flesh sheathed in a tough, diamond-patterned rind and crowned with a tuft of stiff leaves. Bright, intensely sweet and mouth-pricklingly acidic, it carries an enzyme that digests protein — and your tongue — making it one of the few fruits that quite literally bites back.

Picking a good onedrag

Green, hard, sharpSoft, weeping, boozy

Gold at the baseCuts into clean rings and chunks - grill, skewer, salad, salsa; sweet with the acid still on it.Everyday best

BaseFaintly sweet, only up close

ShellGold at the base, green shoulders

SqueezeHeavy for its size, slight give

CrownOuter leaves brown-tipped, centre green

What to look for, from green, hard, sharp to soft, weeping, boozy.

What one gives you

51%

Usable yield

905 g flesh · crown, skin and core out

1775 g

Typical weight

one specimen

Keeping ittap a band

Below about 10 C the shell stays dull green, the crown dries and the flesh browns internally, so a whole fruit keeps better in a cool room than the fridge. Chill only what you cut.

Humidity

85-95%

85-95% suits it. Drier and the crown goes grey and the shell papery; a whole fruit needs no bag, and don't wash it until you cut.

Airflow

Open, air all round

Stand it with air all round it. Sealed in plastic it sweats and the cut base ferments, and that base is where the rot starts anyway.

Ripens no further, whatever it sits by

It makes almost none and is barely troubled by it. Ethylene golds the shell without touching the flesh, so a green one parked by the bananas never gets sweeter.

Preparing