Hooray for Pineapple!

I love eating pineapple at breakfast every morning. I serve it, diced, piled into the cavity of a papaya topped with drops of calamansi lime. For me that is “no ka oi,” the best.

Hawaii and pineapple are so wedded to each other I often assumed that the fruit had originated in the islands. Not so. It turns out that pineapple’s birthing place was far, far, away, and a long time ago in South America. Over time, the fruit migrated to many parts of the world, and thrived in Hawaii with its rich volcanic soil and tropical climate. The Hawaiian name for pineapple is “halakahiki,” or foreign fruit.

Way back in George Washington’s time, pineapple was revered as a symbol of hospitality. And it cost a lot of money. One perfect specimen could sell for as much as $8,000! Its beauty at the table drew oodles of praise, and it was never eaten.

Because transporting the fruit was always a dicey affair—Would it survive the long voyage? Would it be edible? Many countries established heated greenhouses where the fruit could be grown without having to make long journeys.

Pineapple’s great popularity in America is due to canning. James Dole founded the Hawaiian Pineapple Company in 1901. He wasn’t the first to can the fruit, but he was the first to see its tremendous economic potential. He even bought the island of Lanai and turned it into “The Pineapple Island.” By the 1930s Hawaii was known as the pineapple capital of the world, and Dole was processing over 200,000 tons of the fruit a year!

Back in 1979, I entered a contest, the National Pineapple Cooking Classic, and won a week-long trip to Honolulu with my recipe for a yeasted crescent dinner roll filled with pineapple and devilled ham. I was so determined to win that I drove my family nuts testing recipes for pineapple in everything--main dishes, side dishes, desserts, and breads—and submitted 21 entries over a two-month period!

On that trip, I loved the guided tours of pineapple farms and delighted in tasting freshly-cut pineapple. What a thrill to see a sea of pineapples growing right in front of me!

Myths abound about how to tell if a pineapple is truly sweet and ripe. Our guide shared some, such as: If you pluck a leaf from the crown and it comes out easily, the fruit is ripe. FALSE. He went on to say that he’d lost track of how many times he’d heard that one.

And what about sweetness? Our guide told that once the pineapple has been cut from its plant, you have removed it from its sugar source, which comes into the fruit via its base. A pineapple cut from its plant will never get any sweeter. It may get softer over a few days, but that’s it.

He also showed us the sure way to test a pineapple for sweetness. Holding the base of a fruit close to his nose he gave it a good strong sniff. He said if you get a sweet pineapple aroma, you’ve got a winner. This test works with fruit at room temperature, not with cold fruit.

So far I’ve been talking about pineapple as if were one thing, but it’s not. There are dozens of varieties. Sweet Cayenne, the yellow pineapple we’re probably most familiar with, does very well in Hawaii’s soil and climate. It’s available year-round, but not always in abundance.

I had a hard time finding any pineapple in January. Now it’s late February, and farmers markets and supermarkets are suddenly abundant with large and deliciously fragrant fruits.

My favorite variety is Sugarloaf. Its white flesh is low in acid and sweet as can be. Sugarloaf pineapple commands a premium price at farmers’ markets, about $25 for an entire fruit weighing 4 to 6 pounds. You can order it sent to the mainland or anywhere else by writing to: sales@kauaisugarloaf.com. When I checked yesterday, one fruit cost $35 and the FedEx shipping cost $35. That makes my $25 price look like a bargain, and it brightens my mornings every day for the next week.  Lucky me.