A Step-By-Step Guide to Cutting Up a Pineapple

Assuming you’re making a pineapple dish, and not turning a whole pineapple into a piña colada holder, you need to slice it up! Rebecca Goldfarb of the Social Table showed us how, using an eight-inch chef’s knife and a ripe, juicy pineapple.

1. Flip the pineapple on its side on the cutting board.
2. Use the knife to slice off the green spiky crown. Discard the crown.
3. Slice off the other end of the pineapple; discard it as well.
4. Stand the pineapple up on one of its now-flat ends.
5. Slicing from top to bottom, cut off the skin in thin strips, close enough that you’re retaining as much fruit as possible while removing all the skin and small brown dots (called the eyes). Once the skin is completely removed, clean it from the cutting board.
6. With the pineapple still on its flat end, cut it straight through the middle — and through the core — from top to bottom.
7. Place one pineapple half with its long flat side face down, and slice from top to bottom, halving the half.
8. Stand one of the pineapple quarters up on its end and slice off the hard core at its corner. Discard the core.
9. Lay the pineapple quarter flat and cut across its width in even slices of your preferred size.
10. Repeat steps 7 through 10 with the other pieces of the pineapple.

Getting the routine down takes some practice, but before long, you’ll be slicing pineapple like a pro. 🍍