There are a lot of methods for cutting up a pineapple but this is my method of choice. I have no idea where I learned it but it spawned from my abhorrence of eating the brown spots on the pineapple. I’m a little OCD about that. (That and a million other things, if you really want to know.)

The first step is to trim off the top of the pineapple (sorry, I don’t have a picture of this! I got a little eager about getting all those brown spots off of the little beauty and forgot to snap a pic…). You can do this by grabbing the stiff leaves and gently but forcefully twisting the entire top all the way off. Or you can get a knife and do the job. While you are at it, trim the bottom off, about 3/4 of an inch, cutting off all the brown peel away and leaving only fruit on the bottom.

Set the pineapple on a cutting board and using a large, sharp knife start trimming off the peels one segment at a time as shown below, making sure not to trim too far into the yummy, juicy flesh of the pineapple. Don’t worry if you leave some brown spots. I’ll show you how to trim off those little devils in a minute.

Below is how the naked little pineapple should look sans peels.

Now take a good hard look at the pineapple. You’ll notice how the brown spots line up in a diagonal. I included some handy dandy arrows to show you what I mean.

Once you have identified what direction to cut, begin cutting divets in the pineapple to trim out the brown spots. Because they line up in a diagonal, you can cut one long divet for each row of spots.

Make the divets around the entire pineapple and it should look something like the picture below.

Once the brown spots are gone, it’s time to cut the four large segments away from the core. Start at the top and cut one side away from the core (the core is where the center of the pineapple starts to get firm – too firm to want to eat – which I should know since my kids like to gnaw on it).

Once all the sides are cut away, you’ll have four juicy pieces of fruit and the core will be hanging out by it’s lonesome and can now be tossed, unless you want to make this.

Lay each segment down on the cutting board.

Cut it in half.

Then cut each half in half again.

Finally each strip can be cut into chunks. And you are all done! Eat your heart out but remember, too much pineapple can make your mouth (and tummy!) a leetle sore.