Art's wonderful cousin often brings super sweet Hawaiian grown Dole pineapples for us. We love it! It's usually sweeter than sweet in summer. In winter, it tends to be a bit more tart but I love to use it in my smoothies. My mom insisted the other day that I need to turn the pineapple upside down to let the sugar run down to the top of the pineapple. Sounded like an old wives tale to me but then my neighbor told me the exact same thing and added that I should put it in sunlight. So I did.
Is it sweeter? I don't know because I didn't taste it before I cut it but it was not bad for a winter pineapple.
Postscript:
OK, before anybody tries this I must tell you that mom also insists that when I cut the ends off of cucumbers I need to rub the ends with the part I cut off to somehow suck all the bitterness away from the rest of the cucumber. I've told her time and again that it doesn't make sense but she insists!
never knew that until nows. Does it also work on people with sour dispositions, too?
ReplyDeleteWe live and learn.
ReplyDeleteAnd here I thought pineapples come in cans. :)
Funny, I just posted about an Italian cake new to me and asked readers for information.
Isn't it a hassle to open and cut a pineapple?
Ron: You know... I don't know for sure if it really does work, but people around me swear it does.
ReplyDeleteDina: I truly don't enjoy cutting a pineapple, but I know how! I worked for 3 summers trimming pineapples at Dole Pineapple Factory, sometimes for 12 hours at $1.25 an hour (at best) during peak times. It was quite an experience and a very sure way for me to learn the value of a dollar. It's probably what makes me count my pennies these days. Just smelling a pineapple will usually produce a line of sweat at my brow hairline, even in winter.
That's a very good tip. I will try it next time I buy one. Nothing like fresh Hawaiian Pineapple!!!!
ReplyDeletewe got a pineapple from some friends that know I don't do sugar-we're trying to ripen it as it is very green but it smells good
ReplyDeletehmmmmm I think that's really interesting!!!!
ReplyDeleteHadn't heard that one, but I did learn something similar about bananas from a friend who found the info on line. When you buy bananas don't leave them connected because they continue to ripen -- separated they last much longer. And if you don't like those stringy things on the banana, then peel from the bottom end, apparently that's how the monkeys do it. I found a lot of those clever thoughts in the piece she sent me. Have to post it one of these days maybe.
ReplyDeleteHave a good week, Kay!
Sylvia
You've just got to love these theories!
ReplyDeleteOh my mouth is watering for just a taste of a pineapple! How I do love pineapple and especially fresh!
ReplyDeleteI never buy fresh pineapple, because they tend to be tart. I always buy canned Dole pineapple chunks, and cook them with shrimp.
ReplyDeleteI love pineapple, it's sweet I guess.
ReplyDeleteBut I haven't tried cutting
Amoeba is asleep or I'd ask about the upside down pineapple. I can only wish the cucumber thing works. Bitter cukes are horrid.
ReplyDeleteI love pineapple, thanks for the tip! Enjoy!
ReplyDeleteOften the old wives' tales sound kind of corny but prove to be true. My mother always made a tea of ginger for us when we were ill, and Dr. Oz just the other day (on t.v.) recommended ginger tea for aches and pains. I'm going to try your mother's pineapple-cutting technique.
ReplyDeletewe've always done the cucumber thing about rubbing the cut end ... it came from somewhere far back in my family
ReplyDeleteI'm going to try it again and test by tasting before and after ... but maybe not. Vegetables are very different than they were twenty years ago
tried the banana string trick a few months ago when my cousin sent it to me ... told him I was very excited because I eat a lot of bananas and the strings really bug me ... well, it didn't work for me, and he said, "come on now, even the monkeys can do it."
Wow. You learned early how to work hard for little pay. Today you still work hard, but for NO pay. :)
ReplyDeleteMy hubby loves fresh pineapple but by the time they get here..they aren't very good....
ReplyDeleteI never heard about the upside-down pineapples, but am now tempted to try it.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a little girl my father had 2 acres of vegetable gardens, and we used to rub the cucumber's cut ends too. The cut end would get all foamy and my grandmother said that was the bitterness being drawn out. I don't know if that's true or not, but since then vegetables are hybridised and genetically modified to prevent the bitterness. Every year I buy seeds that promise bitter-free female-only cucumbers (and yes, weirdly, cucumbers are male and female, like holly) Apparently it's the fertilised seeds in a cucumber that makes it taste bitter--unfertilised taste fine: or maybe that's an old wives' tale too? I've also heard that it happens from under-watering, or from the Ph of the soil they're grown in.
Either way, there's some comfort in doing the things our mothers did...maybe that's what really keeps these old wives' tales going.