How To Peel A Pineapple Without A Knife (This Is Genius!)

So what happens when you have a pineapple sitting on your kitchen counter, ripened and ready to be eaten, but no knife to cut into it?

Or you've tried to cut into it with a knife and instead you've nearly taken your hand clean off...yep been there and done that!

Or your knifes are just not sharp enough to actually cut into the pineapples rough exterior? That one is super frustrating!

Well luckily for us both there's 3 genius ways to easily peel a pineapple without a knife...

How to Peel a Pineapple with Your Bare Hands

And no, it doesn’t require a bear’s strength.

It’s actually a surprisingly simple three-step process, although it does work better on smaller pineapples as the fruitlets have looser connections which makes it easier to pull them apart. 

1. Twist N’ Pull

Remove the crown by holding the pineapple in your hand and firmly twisting the greenery at the top of the pineapple.

It should come off with relative ease and you can then use this to re-grow a new pineapple if you can handle the two-year commitment! 

2. Tap, Tap, N’ Roll

Tap the base of the pineapple on a table or solid surface, being firm but not too forceful as you bring it down. Do this a few times to loosen the connection between the fruitlets. 

Then roll the pineapple on its side like a rolling pin, pushing on it slightly so you can feel a slight give. Again, don’t exert too much force or you’ll end up squishing the pineapple rather than separating it. 

You’ll need a stable surface to do this on and it can be useful to use both hands to roll so you apply the pressure evenly across the surface of the pineapple. 

3. Peel N’ Eat!

Now you can just pull at one of the (hopefully loosened) fruitlets using your thumb and forefinger and voila! It should slide out of it’s place and you’ll be able to take a bite of the juicy pineapple flesh that it pulls out with it. 

Depending on where the pineapple is grown, you may have to use more or less pressure to pull at the pineapple fruitlets.

In the US, they can be quite reluctant so you’ll require some patience and a reasonable amount of hand strength to peel an entire pineapple. 

Pineapple Anatomy 

Similar to a lot of berries, pineapple is an aggregate fruit. If you want to get technical about it, pineapples actually are berries!

You know, like how tomatoes are technically a fruit? The same thing applies here to pineapples.  

Pineapples have a tough outer exterior that is made up of individual fruitlets, although the total number of these depends on the size of the pineapple.

This is important to know now because it comes into play when you’re peeling a pineapple without a knife. 

A less important but equally as fun fact is that pineapples take 24 months to fully grow! That’s two whole years that have gone into the making of the pineapple you’re about to try and peel. No pressure. 

Benefits of Eating Pineapple 

Benefit one: pineapple is a super succulent, flavorful fruit. Beyond that, there are quite a few health benefits to eating pineapple.

It can help curb your sugar cravings, for instance, so you will end up reaching for a piece of fruit rather than a chocolate bar or other kinds of candy.

Pineapple is high in a number of essential vitamins such as vitamin C, and it has great nutritional benefits including helping to fight disease, aiding in digestion, reducing the chances of cancer, and boosting your immunity. 

Choosing the Best Pineapple

If you’re going to be using this method, the best time to peel your pineapple is when it’s leaning towards but not quite overripe.

Pineapples turn from green to yellow from the bottom up as they ripen, so you should look for fruit with a nice overall yellow color.  

It’s not impossible to peel a pineapple that’s still a little green near the top, but you’ll have a harder time prying the fruitlets apart. It’s worth the effort though if you prefer pineapple that’s a little less sweet.

Another way to tell if your pineapple is ripe is by its scent. Ripe pineapples tend to smell quite strongly and you should get a pineapple-y whiff just from holding it in your hands, without having to lift it up to your face at all.

When you’re shopping at the grocery store, don’t fall into the trap of thinking your pineapple smells ripe without taking into account the other pineapples in the area.

To know if it’s the pineapple in your hands that is ripe try smelling it at a distance from the other pineapples.