- A video of someone pulling perfect chunks of pineapple out of the rind without using a knife recently went viral.
- It makes sense that the method would work; pineapples are technically individual “fruitlets” joined together over time, as the Huffington Post reported.
- Still, the video seemed too good to be true, so I put the pineapple hack to the test.
- I could pull the fruitlets apart and eat the fruit without peeling and coring it, but I found the hack messy and more trouble than it’s worth.
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Pineapples are delicious, but preparing them to eat can be a real hassle.
With a spiky rind encasing the sweet, yellow fruit, there is seemingly no efficient means of eating the tropical treat without making an absolute mess.
That’s why people were shocked when a recent video depicted someone pulling perfect, complete chunks of pineapple out of the rind without a knife and with relative ease.
The video, which was initially posted by TikTok user @dillonroberts22, quickly went viral across multiple social-media platforms and left many commenters questioning how they had gone so long without knowing about the pineapple-eating hack.
Read more: A video that shows you how to eat a pineapple without using a knife is blowing people's minds
Excuse me pic.twitter.com/3u1zCADRDg
— Jai day 🎈 (@JailenPearl) March 6, 2019
https://twitter.com/Ladypolitik/status/1103113276110454784?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
As it turns out, there's a pretty logical reason behind why this method actually works. As a 2014 article from the Huffington Post points out, pineapples grow as individual berries, or "fruitlets," that fuse together to form the core of the fruit as the plant matures. So, in theory, pulling the chunks of fruit away as demonstrated in the video makes much more sense than hacking away at the rind. But in practice, I suspected that it may be more complicated.
The video looked too good to be true, so I decided to test the pineapple hack myself
I ventured out to my nearest grocery store to find a pineapple. I had done some research prior to my expedition and read that using a ripe pineapple would produce the best results, but most of the pineapples at my supermarket of choice did not appear to have reached full maturity.
Still, I plucked the softest, most yellow, and sweet-smelling pineapple from the bunch and headed for the checkout line.
I had also read that, in addition to selecting a particularly ripe pineapple, rolling the fruit along a hard, flat surface could potentially help loosen the fibers and allow the pineapple fruitlets to separate more easily. I gave that a try - much to the amusement of my coworkers in the office kitchen - and then set about actually starting the experiment.
To me, the real mystery of this entire pineapple-peeling hack was how to begin
Every video I had seen depicted someone pulling fruitlets from the core, but none showed how to remove the leaves and break through the pineapple's spiny exterior in the first place. Needless to say, I wasn't exactly sure where to start.
I eventually settled on removing the leaves first. I gripped the body of the pineapple and twisted the leaves off the top, which was surprisingly difficult to do. Eventually, the leaves popped off, but I was left with a pineapple that was fully intact and had no means of reaching the fruit inside.
After making a fruitless attempt at tearing bits of the pineapple away with my bare hands, I resigned to using a knife to get myself started. I sliced along the top of the pineapple, making sure to cut into the spaces between the fruitlets rather than through the fruitlets themselves.
Unfortunately, the top of my pineapple was still rather green, so the fruitlets were a bit stubborn about pulling apart. The further down the pineapple I moved, however, the more yellow the fruitlets became and the more easily I was able to pry chunks of fruits from the rind.
However, even when I was working with the ripest part of the pineapple, I had to fight a bit to remove the fruitlets from the core. My pineapple pulling was most effective when I dug my nail under the fruitlet and tried to prop it loose from the core. The hack definitely "worked" in the sense that it was possible to pull chunks of pineapple out without using a knife to cut it free, but it certainly wasn't a seamless process.
Even though the hack works, it may be more trouble than it's worth
I found the experience to be quite untidy. Anyone who has eaten a pineapple knows that it is a particularly juicy fruit, so ripping and tugging pieces away from the core created quite a sticky mess.
It's also possible that the pineapple featured in the initial viral video may have been specially grown to peel apart with ease. Eater suggested that the fruit in question may have been a Tainung No. 4, which is a softer, less juicy pineapple variety from Taiwan that is colloquially known as the "Easy Peeler." Meanwhile, ABC Australia culinary correspondent Alice Zaslavsky told BBC World's Rico Hizon that she successfully completed the hack using a tiny pineapple specially grown in the Ishigaki, Okinawa, region of Japan. I'd love to get my hands on one of the specialty fruits, but it appears that they are only available in the eastern hemisphere, so it seems pretty impractical to try this hack on other types of pineapples.
Unless you want to try pulling the pineapple apart while sitting in the bathtub or leaning over a sink, I can't imagine that this trick would be worthwhile. It probably makes more sense to just put in the grunt work and cut the pineapple into bite-sized pieces the old-fashioned way.
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