Just as a heads up pineapple does not always behave like a lot of other fruits in admixtures due to it’s relatively high acid content and strong enzymes. If doing something new with pineapples it’s best to try a test batch first.
I like it fresh, although sometimes, I’m not sure whether I’m eating pineapple, or it’s eating me - I’ve heard it said that pineapples contain enzymes that tenderise meat, so maybe it’s trying to digest my mouth as I chew it. More likely, it’s just the high concentration of sugars and the acidity that makes it feel this way.
Tinned pineapple. Meh.
Pineapple on Pizza/gammon. I don’t mind if you do, as long as you don’t mind if I don’t.
I love pineapple. Safeway actually carries a house brand of peach-pineapple preserves which I must remember to pick up next time I’m there.
Pineapple was never meant to be consumed on pizza, although I don’t mind it baked on top of a ham.
All together now, in BIG LOUD SCREAMING CAPS:
I WISH TO OG I COULD GET REAL FIELD-RIPENED PINEAPPLES just like when I lived in Hawaii.
Having lived there for a few years, where I first became acquainted with pineapples, I find that the usual crappola-pineapples commonly found in mainland supermarkets just ain’t the same. Not at all. Not remotely.
A fresh juicy almost-huge-watermelon-sized pineapple is a true delight, unobtainable outside the Islands. (Actually, you can get them express shipped, no doubt at some high price.) They have, or at least used to have, farm stands out in the fields where you could get them ripe straight off the vine.
They are unearthly sweet and tart and POWERFUL and very juicy and crunchy, but not as in tough or chewy. The excess juice could be used to remove the rust from your chrome bumpers, or as rocket fuel.
Mainland-side store-bought pineapples are shit. They are half the size of ripe pineapples, they are green and ugly, not very juicy, bitter, and tough-chewy. I won’t touch them, and I wouldn’t wish them upon anyone.
I didn’t like living in Hawaii for various unrelated reasons, but I sure do miss those PINEAPPLES!!!
ETA: However, I DO like them on pizza! It’s nothing like eating a real fresh ripe Hawaiian pineapple, but still I like them, Sam-I-Am. I always choose the “Hawaiian style” pizza just for that. And I like canned pineapple too, but still, it’s NOTHING AT ALL like the REAL THING!
Didn’t notice if anyone else mentioned this yet, but yes, you have to be careful. I’m not into making Jell-O much, but I’ve routinely heard that you cannot put raw pineapple pieces into gelatin. Because of all the high-power chemistry, the gelatin will not gel.
SUGGESTED RECIPE FOR REAL PINEAPPLE-DEPRIVED PEOPLE EVERYWHERE:
I’ve discovered this recipe that offers a rough semblance of the REAL PINEAPPLE experience:
– SIX really good oranges, if you can find them.
– One half lemon.
– Squeeze oranges to make FRESH SQUOZEN orange juice. Canned, bottled, or frozen will NOT do!
– Squeeze half lemon.
– Mix FRESH SQUOZEN orange juice with FRESH SQUOZEN lemon juice.
Drink mixture, as a tart, refreshing reminiscence of REAL PINEAPPLE, or use as rocket fuel.
I’ve occasionally gone to those fresh-squozen orange juice shops (like Jamba Juice or similar) and requested this. It’s never a regular thing on the menu, and the workers are always surprised, so I think they’ve never encountered the request before. Occasionally, I am able to get them to actually make this special-request blend.
Moving to Cafe Society.
Doesn’t he realize the, um…benefits?
I like fresh pineapple, but canned pineapple blows.
Squozen?
I’m not crazy about it. I’ll eat it if it’s cooked on the ham or whatever, but I’ll never seek it out. In a fruit salad I’ll eat the other melon and Mandarin oranges but will leave all or most of the pineapple (and all of the strawberries- yecch). I won’t eat it on a pizza, and won’t even eat the pizza because the pineapple juice has infected the rest of the gloriousness.
I hate pineapple. And I love fruit and I love sour things but pineapple…nah. I alwats pick it out of a fruit salad and don’t eat anything pineapple-y…except pina coladas maybe. And even those I prefer to go light on the pineapple juice.
Preach it, brother. The only fruit that belongs on pizza is tomato.
My mother loves loves loves pineapple. However, she can’t really have any. She’s uber-sensitive to the chemical/meat tenderizer in pineapple, so eating it makes her tongue swell up and hurt something awful. Poor lady.
I really like pineapple, but oddly, it’s not something I really go out of my way for. I have some of those Dole pineapple cups in my fridge right now that have been there for a couple of weeks. I don’t know that I’ve ever actually bought a ripe pineapple at the store (but maybe this is because I live in Minnesota; good pineapples are rather like good avocados around here in that they’re rare). But it’s the first thing I’ll grab for in a fruit salad, and I love love love pineapple juice something fierce. Yet I don’t seek it out. Strange, that.
^ This. The ones you can get in Hawaii, even from the grocery stores, not to mention the road-side fruit stands and farmers markets, are nothing like the ones we get on the mainland. Even if you think you do not like pineapple, once you try one grown in Hawaii, you may change your mind.
The fresh pineapples commercially available now are grown in Costa Rica and are just inferior to the Hawaiian grown. I can understand why many do not like them. Interestingly, pineapple originated in S. America, but seems to have been perfected in Hawaii (at least the ones I have had - I have yet to have one from Brazil).
I like fresh pinapple, as long as its ripe, but I hate pineapple juice with the burning fire of a thousand suns. And Pineapple on pizza is a crime against humanity, not because pineapple is bad, but because pineapple and cheese do not (barf) go together any more than orange juice and milk do.
I understand where you are coming from. I stayed away from peaches for years and still can’t handle peach yogurt due to an evening as a taste tester where they overloaded me with chemical “peach-flavored” items. But look at me now! I’m making peach jam (made better with pineapple IMO).
I hate it. I hate eating chunks of it and I hate drinking the juice.
Hate it, think I am allergic it makes my mouth burn(so does kiwi)
IME The jam will jell provided the pineapple has been well and thoroughly cooked through. If it’s even a tiny bit north though, the enzymes will break down the jelling process.
And pineapple is wonderful. I love it. A Navy buddy brought home some truly ripe pineapple once, and gave me a slice. It was over twenty years ago, but I still think about it and wish for more.
My dad didn’t care for it. Before he joined the Navy, he was stationed in Hawaii in the Army. They ate a lot of pineapple, and he got sick of it. (And they threw them at each other.)