Picking a Pineapple

One of the great things to grill is Pineapple. Yes Pineapple. There are restaurants around the world with Michelin stars that serve this for dessert. You can do it many different ways but we baste ours with orange juice, honey with a touch of cinnamon, then slice and serve with ice cream.

When I was younger, I worked in the pineapple fields in Hawaii on several islands. It was a great experience but I ate soooo much of it while I was there that after I came back to the mainland, I didn't eat it for a long time, but I do like it grilled. We would plant the cone of the pineapple, then after 2 years it will produce one fruit each year, so when the plant was 7 years old, they would have 5 fruit on them and they would plow them under and start over. I would plant a minimum 10,000 per day and anything over that you got a bonus, so we were hustling.

When you are in the islands and you get invited to a luau, the host serves the main guest the best part of the pineapple. That is the bottom where it was attached to the plant. This is always the ripest and sweetest part of the fruit. If they give you the top, then your status on the guest list is towards the bottom. You can use a slightly greener one when you are grilling as the heat will bring out the flavors more then raw.

When you pick out a pineapple to take home, look for the ones that are more yellow to light brown on the bottom and they will be slightly soft when you push with your thumb. You can do so many things with this fruit and it is so much better whole then in the can. Try it on the grill and let us know how you liked it, but be prepared to spend some time with it, it takes a few hours to do this. I usually do one when I am outside doing other things so I can keep an eye on it and baste and turn. You want to use low and indirect heat, I also add some wood chips to up the flavor to a smokey sweetness.

You can also check out world renown chef, Francis MallMann. This guy grills everything under the sun including Pineapple. He takes a whole day to do his. Enjoy and let us know how yours came out and how you served it.