Ingredient

Pineapple

A pineapple stops accumulating sugar the moment it is cut from the plant. It will go softer and more yellow, and it will start to ferment, but it will never get sweeter. Every piece of advice about standing one upside down to let the sugars run down is wrong.

Non-climacteric, and what that rules out

Sugar in a pineapple comes from the plant and stops arriving at harvest. What happens afterwards is a slow breakdown of the flesh — acid falls, texture softens, and eventually the fruit ferments and turns boozy and then sour.

So a pale, hard, sharp pineapple is a pineapple that was picked too early, and no amount of waiting fixes it. Choose properly at the shop or plan to cook it.

Turning a pineapple upside down does nothing, because there is no reservoir of sugar to redistribute. The idea persists because a fruit stored either way up softens over a few days and people credit the position.

How to choose one

Four checks, none of which is the leaf-pulling trick.

Smell the base

A ripe pineapple smells sweet and distinctly of pineapple at the cut end. No smell means no flavour.

Weight

Heavy for its size means juicy.

Colour

Some yellow at the base is a good sign, though variety affects this and some ripe pineapples stay green.

Give

Press the side. It should yield very slightly. Rock hard is early; soft patches are too late.

The leaf test

Pulling a central leaf out proves nothing about sugar — it loosens as the fruit softens, which happens whether or not it is sweet.

Bromelain, and what it does to your food

Fresh pineapple contains bromelain, a protease that breaks down proteins. This has three practical consequences that catch people out regularly.

It will not set with gelatine. A jelly made with fresh pineapple juice stays liquid because the enzyme digests the gelatine. Cooking the juice first destroys the enzyme and solves it, which is why tinned pineapple sets perfectly.

It curdles dairy over time, so a fresh pineapple left sitting in cream or a fruit fool will turn unpleasant within an hour. And it tenderises meat aggressively, which is useful in a marinade and disastrous if left too long — an hour is plenty, and overnight turns meat to mush.

Using it well

• Griddled or grilled, which caramelises the sugars and is the best thing to do with a mediocre one.
• In a short marinade for pork or beef, half an hour to an hour, no more.
• With salt and chilli, the standard treatment across Latin America and Southeast Asia, which makes the fruit taste sweeter.
• In a savoury curry or a stir-fry, where the acidity works like tamarind.
• Pineapple chutney, with ginger and chilli.
• Tinned, for anything set with gelatine, since the canning heat has destroyed the enzyme.
• The core. Perfectly edible, just fibrous. Blitz it into a drink rather than binning it.

Common questions