Ree Drummond's Simple Method Makes Cutting Pineapple A Breeze

One of the things I love about Ree Drummond (otherwise known as The Pioneer Woman) is that she's pleasantly straight-forward. Her dishes are simple yet full of flavor and none of her cooking techniques are too difficult or out of reach for home cooks like myself. In fact, when I saw her prepping a pineapple on her Instagram page, I was thrilled to see I cut mine up the same way she does. Yes, there are special tools and gadgets out there that get the job done with minimal effort, but a good, sharp chef's knife is honestly all you need to start snacking on some ripe pineapple. (There's even a pull-apart method that requires no knife at all.)

The red haired Food Network star first lays the pineapple on its side and cuts the crown and base off. Standing it back up on the now-flat base, Drummond carefully cuts the outer, rough rind off, starting at the top and cutting downwards so the rind comes off in vertical lengths. You want to cut deep enough to remove most of those tough "eye" spots, while retaining as much edible fruit as possible. 

Once the peel is removed, keep the pineapple standing up straight and cut the fruit right down the middle through the core. Turn it so you can cut another vertical slice crosswise so you have four equal wedges. Keep turning and cutting in this way until you have eight wedges. Next, take each wedge, stand it up straight, and remove the tough inner core. Now cut the core-less wedges into bite sized pieces and you're done.

Pineapple is a wonderfully flavorful fruit. It's sweet, tart, and oh-so-tropical all at once. It can be eaten as-is, grilled (but don't make this mistake), roasted, placed on pizza (something Gordon Ramsay can't stand), chopped and put in salsas and chutneys, blitzed into smoothies, or incorporated into cocktails. The tough peel and fibrous core aren't good for any of these kitchen projects, but that doesn't mean they're useless. You can make a flavorful, nutritious pineapple tea by placing these discarded pieces in some water, bringing it to a boil, and letting them simmer for 20 minutes. After straining the solids out, you have a pineapple tea, of sorts, which you can sip hot or cold or turn into pineapple syrup. 

For the syrup, boil equal parts pineapple tea and sugar until the sugar is dissolved. Add some lemon juice for tartness, plus any other flavors you like, such as ginger root, mint leaves, vanilla bean seeds, or something unexpected, like chili flakes. Use the syrup for cocktails, homemade sodas, or drizzling over other fruits (like a fruit salad) and sweet treats (like pineapple upside down pancakes).