CUTTING A PINEAPPLE

The first time I dehydrated fresh pineapple several years ago was also the first time I had ever cut up a fresh pineapple. I was really intimidated by it because I had heard people comment about how difficult it was. Fortunately, I did not find that to be true. I used directions I found on You Tube that took the scariness out of the process and now I can approach a pineapple without a trace of fear!

HOW TO CUT A PINEAPPLE

First, I washed the pineapple.

 Next, I cut off the top and bottom. 

Then I set the pineapple back upright to slice it into half …

… and then into quarters

To remove the core, I made a V-cut into each of the quarters.

Next, I cut each piece in half again so that there were eight pieces.

Then, I cut each section crosswise. Since I am using these pineapple pieces for dehydrating, I tried to cut them fairly consistently in about a fat 1/4″ slice. When preparing a pineapple for other uses, uniform slices may not be necessary.

Finally, I sliced along the skin.  It’s not necessary to get extremely close to the skin. If you do, you’ll have to do too much clean-up.

It only took about half an hour to prepare both pineapples for the dehydrator!

INTO THE DEHYDRATER IT GOES

I did a little trimming to remove bits of “eye” that was left in the fruit. 

Then, onto the trays and the dehydrator was started!

These will take 6 – 12 hours to dry so should be ready to package before I go to work in the morning.  The two pineapples filled five trays.

LEFTOVERS

Keep those skins and cores. There’s more magic to come!