When you hold a whole pineapple in your hand, it is hard to predict if it is ripening on the inside. Unless you are a fruit expert, you’re going to have a difficult time telling the difference from the outside. More often than usual, luckily, we find ripened pineapples from the market and then we happily add its inside to most of our breakfasts and desserts. But what if the pineapple you buy is not fully ripened and you need to get it ripe faster at home? Well, there are certain steps and actions that you can take to enjoy a perfectly ripened pineapple. In this article, we will see what can we do about the ‘unripe’ pineapple situation. We’ll show you how to ripen a pineapple once cut or bought from the store.
Before we begin discussing the methods to ripen the pineapple, let us talk about some basic measures that we must take to avoid bringing unripe pineapple to home. There are three ways to identify if a pineapple is ripe. Firstly, the scent of the fruit! If the pineapple has a distinct sweet scent, it means it is ripe completely.
Secondly, the color of the shell. Green shell does not mean; the pineapple is not ripe; in fact, fresh green leaves on its crown indicate the perfect ripeness of the fruit. And thirdly, the firmness of the fruit also indicates if it is ripe. A ripe pineapple has to be firm, not soft.
How to Tell when a Pineapple is Ripe (Step by Step)
Even when you fail to find a ripe pineapple, then no worries! There are two methods to ripen this fruit quickly. Either of the methods can be used to serve the purpose based on the availability of time and resources. With the following techniques, you can easily ripen your pineapples at home.
1. Choosing a Pineapple
As briefly discussed above, there are smart ways to check if the pineapple is ripe yet or not. When it comes to pineapple, you can never tell if it’s ripe from the look of the shell. Some people believe that if the shell is green, it indicates that the pineapple is not ripe but that’s not true. Similarly, there are other widely popular misconceptions about pineapple and its ripeness. To choose the right pineapple, you must follow the following main steps.
At first, check the crown of the pineapple. The crown leaves tell much about the pineapple’s age. If the crown color is fresh green and the texture of those leaves is firm and succulent, that means the pineapple is fresh and ripe.
Then use another indicator to select the perfect pineapple, hold the pineapple in your hand, and feel its firmness by pressing it gently. If it feels soft, then don’t bring that pineapple home. It should be firm in structure.
There is yet another way to identify if the fruit is good to go, that is the orange color at its base. Flip the pineapple upside down and check if it has an orange color at the bottom; if so, then the pineapple is ripe.
Lastly, the scent of the pineapple should be checked. But how to smell and identify its sweet scent. Do not smell the pineapple around its crown but flip it upside down and smell its base. If the base smells sweet, it means the pineapple is perfectly ripe. And if the fruit does not match any of the given standards, then move on to the next step!
2. Ripening
There are mainly two different methods to ripen a pineapple in your kitchen. You can try both of them or anyone at a time.
This upside-down hanging will result in two important changes. Firstly, in this position, the sugar stored at the base of the pineapple will naturally flow into its core which will initiate a faster ripening process. Just as it happens on the tree. The continued flow of sugar to the different parts of the fruit makes it grow faster.
On the other hand, this hanging mechanism will also prevent the base of the pineapple from fermentation. Usually, the presence of sugar at the base quickly aid to the fermentation of the base while the rest of the pineapple remain unripe. Keep the ripen pineapple in the refrigerator and do not keep it at room temperature.
Preparation
Now that pineapple is ripe; it’s time to put it to good use. But what I have observed mostly is that people usually waste a lot of good parts of the fruits during peeling, cutting or chopping. The flesh near the skin is that healthiest part of this fruit and people accidentally chop it off while peeling. If you are juicing the pineapple, you should be much concerned about removing the skin to that extent.
Another good half of the pineapple is chopped off when people cut off its crown. If you want the perfect pineapple rings, then simply chop off the crown from the top then insert a pineapple steel spiralizer and screw it into the fruit up to its base then pull it out.
Another way to cut the pineapple is to peel its shell and cut off the crown, then cut it into two halves then cut each half into slices and cubes.
Conclusion:
With all the given techniques in this article now you can always enjoy a fresh and nicely ripened pineapple every time. Use either of the shared methods of ripening and tell us which one felt more effective and convenient for you! Enjoy the process of being able to know how to ripen a pineapple faster and remember one of the most important parts is figuring out how to choose the correct one. This article should be the final destination for how to tell when a pineapple is ripe.
How to Ripen A Pineapple Faster
Here is how to ripen a pineapple fast so you can enjoy the taste sooner rather than waiting a full week.
Ingredients
Pineapple
paper bag
pear
Directions
- Use the upside-down method
- Use a paper bag and place the pineapple in with a pear or another fruit
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