How to ripen pineapple faster at home?

Pineapple is a delicious tropical fruit that can take a bit of work to prepare, but is totally worth it. As long as the pineapple is perfectly ripe, of course.

A pineapple that is not ripe enough can taste sour, bitter, and not as sweet and juicy as the fruit of your dreams.

Technically, as soon as the pineapple is harvested, it is no longer ripe.

However, if you don’t have the luxury of picking freshly grown pineapple in your own tropical backyard, it’s helpful to learn how to ripen pineapple, or at least better develop its texture and color.

How does pineapple ripen?

You can ripen a pineapple quickly and evenly by storing it with fruits, such as apples and bananas, which produce ripening ethylene gas, or by sitting the pineapple upside down on its crown.

In this article, we’ll explain how long it takes for a pineapple to fully ripen and how to get the best results at home, no matter where you live or where you bought it.

We will also explain how to choose the best pineapple from your supermarket so that you can enjoy it sooner.

How to tell if a pineapple is ripe

The appearance of a pineapple is not always a good reflection of its degree of maturity.

Pineapples are usually picked when they are still green. However, if they are exposed to ethylene gas, they will start to turn yellow even though the flesh inside is not really ripe.

Even if you use the recommended techniques to ripen your pineapple, you will eventually discover that ripening a fruit after it has been cut is never foolproof.

The flavor and texture will not be the same as if it were left to mature naturally.

There are a few ways to choose a pineapple that will best tell you if it’s ripe, sweet, and juicy.

Also, if you don’t already have a quality pineapple corer, do yourself a favor and get one. You will save yourself a lot of time and effort!

How to choose a pineapple

1. Color is an indicator of a ripe pineapple, but it is not enough to guarantee success.

There are some pineapples that remain green even when ripe. Most commonly, the color of the ripe pineapple is golden, with shades of yellow fading to orange at the edges of each segment.

The base of your fruit will also likely be a deeper golden color, closer to orange than yellow, with less green than the top of the fruit, near the crown.

However, if your pineapple is too orange or turning brown, it is overripe and headed for rot.

More important than the color of the fruit itself is the color of the leaves on the crown. They should be a deep, fresh green, without brown, dry leaves.

2. Texture is also a reliable indicator of ripeness.

You don’t want a soft pineapple, as this can be a sign that it is overripe, bruised, or rotten on the inside. What you want is a firm pineapple with a little yield. It shouldn’t be rock hard, but it shouldn’t be soft either.

The most reliable sign that your pineapple is ripe is a sweet, juicy aroma.

Immature pineapples have little to no aroma. However, a ripe pineapple will give off hints of sweetness, especially around the base of the fruit where it was picked.

How to pick a sweet pineapple

A very ripe pineapple is a sweet pineapple. If it’s not quite ripe, it will retain a tart and spicy flavor that isn’t terrible, but it’s not the tropical magic that a perfectly ripe pineapple should have.

Smell is the most accurate indicator of sweetness. An immature pineapple will not smell much more than a plant.

Similarly, some pineapples may be ripe and will never taste sweet. They also won’t have much of a fragrance, although you may catch a hint of flavor.

At the other extreme, a pineapple that is overripe, or has gone bad, will smell almost sickly, syrupy-sweet, or even slightly fermented.

A sweet, ready-to-eat pineapple will smell exactly how you want it to taste—sweet, but not overpowering. It has a clean, bright fragrance that will be easy to spot when you have a bit of experience.

How long does it take to ripen a pineapple?

A pineapple growing on a plant can take up to 16 months to mature.

They should be harvested when they are fully ripe, because as soon as they are picked they will not technically become sweeter or riper any further.

However, once picked, the fruit will continue to soften and the color will continue to turn from green to yellow to gold and finally to a deep orange that turns brown as it rots.

Will the pineapple ripen after cutting it?

Pineapples actually stop ripening naturally as soon as they are cut from the plant. Technically they won’t get any sweeter or riper from then on.

However, there are ways to develop the flavor, texture, and color of the pineapple after you cut it from the plant. In fact, most providers will do some of the work for you.

Pineapple is almost always cut from the plant while it’s still green, because it has a long way to go before it’s on the shelf at your favorite grocery store.

However, they are normally checked for ripeness, and all pineapple for sale must be ready and safe to eat, even if it is still green.

During that time, it is often “masked” with ethylene gas to encourage it to turn from green to yellow (after all, no one wants to buy a green pineapple). Many fruits produce ethylene gas, such as bananas, apples, and pears.

The presence of ethylene gas encourages nearby fruits to ripen, even after they have been cut. If the pineapple is placed in a bag with any of these fruits, it will start to turn from green to yellow, making it more attractive to buy.

However, this doesn’t necessarily mean it’s ripe, so you may still need to make some at home.

Once the pineapple is harvested, it will no longer be sweeter. But the texture, color, and aroma can be further developed, making the fruit more palatable, if not technically sweeter.

Can you ripen a pineapple at home?

Technically, a store-bought pineapple is about as ripe as it’s going to get. However, as it ages, the texture becomes smoother and the color of the pineapple turns from green to yellow.

This is very similar to maturation, so for convenience, this is how we refer to the process. But you should know that it is not a totally accurate term.

If you have searched for a ripe pineapple and have not been able to find it, you still have hope that you can enjoy this sweet and tropical fruit by encouraging it to develop more fully at home.

How to Ripen Pineapple Quickly (Method 1)

The most common way to ripen a pineapple, or any other immature fruit, is to expose it to fruits that emit ethylene gas.

We’ve already mentioned that it’s standard practice in the food industry to help turn green pineapples yellow, but grocery stores don’t want to overexpose the fruit and make it overripe before you get it home.

They won’t let it sit in the gas any longer than is necessary for it to look attractive. At home, however, you can continue the maturing process until you are satisfied with the texture and aroma.

The process is the following:

You will need a large paper bag and a whole apple, pear, peach, or banana. These fruits produce an extraordinarily high amount of ethylene gas, which is what will help your pineapple ripen faster.

1. Place the pineapple and any additional fruit of your choice in the paper bag, side by side. You should avoid plastic bags, which can create condensation if there isn’t enough airflow. This is more likely to cause your fruit to rot than to ripen properly.
2. Fold the top of the bag over a few times and leave it out at room temperature.
3. Check your pineapple after 12 hours. If it’s still not ready, reseal the bag and check often.

As soon as the pineapple is ripe to your liking, as you can see by its sweet smell, take it out of the bag and store it properly. A pineapple artificially ripened in this way can go from ripe to overripe very quickly.

How to Ripen Pineapple Evenly (Method 2)

Pineapples ripen from the base to the crown, and it is not uncommon for the bottom of the fruit to become overripe and mushy before the top is ready to be enjoyed.

To solve it, it is enough to ripen the fruit upside down. This may seem strange at first, but it makes sense for a number of reasons.

Firstly, having the pineapple turned upside down also allows the natural sugars to flow more into the crown, helping it ripen faster.

It also prevents sugars and juices from sinking to the bottom of the fruit, accumulating and stagnating there until it goes bad.

If you are ripening your pineapple with other fruit in a paper bag, having it upside down also helps ethylene gas get into the area of the pineapple that needs to ripen the most.

However, setting the fruit on its crown can be tricky business.

You should not remove the crown completely before it is ripe, as this can cause it to spoil more quickly by allowing oxygen, moisture, and bacteria to enter the fruit through the now exposed area around the crown.

Instead, you can trim the leaves so they are even and form a rigid base for your pineapple.

To do this, you can use sharp kitchen scissors, and watch your hands carefully. The edges of the leaves can be quite sharp, and each one ends with a very pointy tip that will prick you like a thorn from a rose.

How to store pineapple

Once your pineapple is perfectly firm, but not too soft, and a nice golden yellow color, you want to avoid any loss of quality. At this point, you want to make sure you are as far away from any ethylene-producing fruit as possible.

A perfectly ripe pineapple will stay fresh at room temperature for about 3 days. However, once you’ve artificially sped up the process, it can break down faster than usual.

Whole pineapples don’t keep well in the fridge, but once you’re satisfied with the quality of your fruit, it’s best to immediately peel and chop it, then store the cut pieces in the fridge.

Place the cut pineapple in an airtight Tupperware container or a tightly closed Ziploc bag for up to 1 week.

How to cut a pineapple

There are many fancy ways to cut a pineapple, and you can even separate each segment one by one.

However, the easiest and fastest way to prepare pineapple is as follows:

1. Remove the crown by twisting or cutting off the top 1-2” of the fruit.
2. Cut off the bottom 1-2” of the pineapple.
3. Flip the pineapple over so that the end where the crown was cut is on the cutting board.
4. Using a sharp knife, peel the pineapple following the curve from top to bottom, working in a circle around the fruit.
5. Once peeled, you can cut the pineapple into small wedges, sticks, or even rounds, but you’ll need to remove the core one way or another.

Questions Related to Pineapples

Do pineapples grow on trees?

Pineapples do not grow on trees. They grow on plants of the bromeliad family.

They are technically succulents that produce edible fruit. They do not grow from seed, but rather from seedlings, or suckers, that develop between the leaves of the main parent plant. You could mistake them for a tropical shrub.

The fruit grows from the center of the plant, where a cluster of flowers fuses to become the individual segments, or aggregations, of the pineapple. Each plant can only produce one fruit at a time.

The crown of each pineapple has the potential to become the plant from which a new pineapple grows.

When it comes to growing pineapples, while ripeness is often what we think of as the deciding factor for fruit to be sweet, growing temperature is actually more important.

Pineapples grown in colder climates will turn out more sour, while plants grown in extremely hot temperatures will be extra sweet.

How to know if a pineapple is bad?

Just like a beautiful, sweet fragrance is a sign of maturity, scent can also be the best way to tell if your pineapple has lived past its prime.

When it goes bad, the sugars in the fruit begin to ferment. The smell will be extremely sweet, almost sickly, and may also have the sour smell of fruit that has been re-fermented.

If your pineapple is soft, it may also be bad. You may only have a bruised area, but if all the fruit starts to get soft, it’s either gone bad or is on its way.

Are pineapples acidic?

Pineapples are quite acidic. They range from 3 to 4 on the pH scale, which is neutral at 7 and fully alkaline at 14.

For some people this can be very taxing on their stomachs and digestive tracts. If you are prone to acid reflux, you may want to avoid pineapples.

Citrus fruits are also very acidic, which is why many people also wonder if pineapples are citrus. They are not. Pineapples are sour due to ascorbic acid, which is vitamin C, and not the citric acid that gives citrus its tartness.