Fruit Ripening

Although a pineapple doesn't ripen before it's cut, I've found that it ripens after it's cut. If I cut a good pineapple into quarters, wrap the quarters in saran wrap, and then put it in the fridge, it is much sweeter the next day. It tastes just like fresh pineapple I had in Costa Rica if I do that. It stays tasty for over a week when stored that way.

Do you leave the rind on when cutting in quarters or are the quarters completely trimmed? I'll have to experiment with this next time I pick up a pineapple.

I'm a pineapple fanatic and I remove the rind. I keep the wedges fresh for days in the fridge in a tupperware container.

A couple years a go I wrote up my method for slicing a pineapple at http://crazygora.blogspot.com/2009/12/off-dole.html

I just have to point out that you've got figs in both lists.

Jim, I cut my pineapples in a very similar method (with an added step of carving out all the eyes after removing the rind which forms kind of a spiral pattern of grooves). I also store mine in airtight containers in the fridge and find it stores well in that condition. What I've never experienced is the increased ripeness after being cut that Kevin mentioned. I thought it might be because I was leaving only the flesh of the fruit and perhaps if it was attached to either the rind or the core it would act differently over time. You probably eat more pineapples than I do, what has been your experience?


Thanks, I've removed the listing for figs under "does not ripen" because it was in error. They do not get sweeter, but do continue to ripen.

No experience, but it doesn't make sense to me that a pineapple would get sweeter if you left the rind on cut pieces AND refrigerated them. Maybe Kevin's right??? I'm not going to experiment.

If I remember, the next time I buy a pineapple, I'll quarter it (lenthwise), cut a slice from the center of each quarter (so I'll have a sample from each quarter in the middle. Trim the sample so it is without core and without rind then store it in the fridge next to the quarter (in two pieces) it belonged to. Then the next day I can taste it to see if there is a difference between fully trimmed and kept in wedge form. Log results. Repeat for three days.

I'm a fruit grower (and an engineer), and this is a pretty nice description. The average customer does get confused about this kind of thing.

Two additional columnns would make it really helpful: "Usually eaten..." and "...so you should" to help people understand how it really ought to be stored. For example, peaches and nectarines are usually eaten "soft around the stem", so you should "remove from refrigerator 2 days before eating." Apples are usually eaten "crispy" so you should "keep refrigerated." Blueberries ripen quickly, and are usually eaten "tender but firm" so you should "refrigerate." Pears are usually eaten "slightly soft" so they should be "ripen in paper bag with an apple."

Good job!

I leave the rind on the pineapple. I cut it in quarters and wrap each quarter tightly with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge. It gets sweeter by the next day. I found this accidentally. After visiting Costa Rica, I was finally brave enough to buy an entire fresh pineapple. In Costa Rica,the pineapple was exceptionally sweet and always served to me in cut pieces sitting on the rind. At home, I ate 1/4 of the pineapple right away, and it wasn't nearly as sweet as the ones in CR. I wrapped up the other 3/4 and put them in the fridge. The next day, it tasted just like the ones in CR. I experimented and found that this effect happened consistently.

Note that I also start with a ripe pineapple. I choose one that is heavy for it's size, has a sweet scent, and is mostly yellow. I'm not sure if this would work with an unripe pineapple. With a ripe one, the pineapple does get significantly sweeter.

Dates do absolutely ripen after harvest. Several years ago, we planted a date palm mostly for aesthetic reasons as part of our landscaping here in Southern California. This is the first year our crop of dates was big enough to go to the trouble of wrapping the fronds in large brown paper cones as they do at commercial date farms—to protect the fruit from birds and rodents. One of the six or seven fronds did ripen on the tree and those dates were relatively dry and small, like you'd buy at the store. At that time, we cut all the fronds. Some of the dates had begun to ripen and were a bit wrinkled, but many were plump and hard and a golden yellow, rather than the dark brown they would eventually turn. We had hundreds of dates, and over the next few weeks, almost all ripened. We used the brown paper bag method, and they were exceptional, delicious: much sweeter and much less dry than commercial dates. They were sticky and gummy and even people who swore they hated dates became addicted to these.

Aceymac apple
Resembles McIntosh in taste, appearance, shape, and flesh. Slightly firmer than McIntosh. Aceymac may be Spartan with new name

Adams's Pearmain apple
Classic Victorian 'pearmain' shape apple with a nutty sweet flavour.


Adanac apple
Medium-sized, yellow-green underecolor with striped red wash. Good dessert quality. The apple name, Adanac, is Canada spelled backwards.


Aerlies Red Flesh apple
A red-fleshed apple variety from the USA, sometimes known as Hidden Rose or Airlie Red Flesh.

Lemon and lime juice also gets sweeter if left for a few days after being squeezed; I prefer the bottled stuff to freshly squeezed.

Though have you ever had a fully ripe apricot straight from the tree? There is no comparison between that and a home ripened fruit. There are gorgeous scent/flavour compounds that are simply missing, in as little as a day after the fruit has been picked. They are heavenly from the tree.

I often think people who say they don't like a particular fruit have just never had a properly ripe specimen, and now I can see why! Though technically a fruit is defined by their ability to ripen off the tree, if there's no increase in sugar, has it really 'ripened'?

I guess it's personal preference as to whether the non-sweet ripened fruit are worth eating from the supermarket - I'd say no for most of them but then I'm a sweet tooth and dislike anything remotely sour. I'm suddenly thankful mangoes are so delicious by the time they've travelled the thousand or so miles between where they're grown and my mouth.

My local produce man gave me the following tip which seems to work well.
"When you get the pineapple home, tear off the top and store it unrefrigerated upside down for a day or two prior to cutting."
He claims the sugars are predominantly in the bottom and by inverting the pineapple the sugars will "diffuse" throughout the flesh. Not so much adding sweetness, as distributing it more evenly throughout the entire pineapple.

How do you "tear off the top" of a pineapple. Does that mean just remove the spikey green bits without cutting the skin. Don't think I'm able to do that with my bare hands ..?

Just twist it off.

I live in a peach growing area. Peaches are picked green so that they don't bruise. They very definitely ripen and sweeten after picking or no one in this country would be eating peaches.

I don't understand why many people think that pineapples do not ripen after picking.

maybe I live in an alternate universe,

but most of the pineapples at my local supermarkets are not ripe (hard, no sweet smell or taste). When they are at room temp for a few days they soften, smell and taste sweet=ripe (the leaves pull out easily when ripe
.
Other who live in the vicinity also experience the strange phenomena ripening picked pineapples but, there are no increase in UFO sightings hear.

Pineapples can be green or yellow when ripe. The do not increase in sweetness once picked. They do soften and change in smell, but their sweetness does not increase.

UC Davis' College of Agriculture has a great science-based Web site for postharvest ripening of fruit and produce:

http://postharvest.ucdavis.edu/libraries/Questions_and_Answers/

Ian, that is an incredible resource! Thank you for sharing it - I'll be spending many hours reading through all these Q&A's!

I routinely find that pineapples do continue to ripen after picking--even store-bought ones, which is all we get here in Canada. I look for the most colourful, best-smelling one I can find, and within a few days it's ready.
Strawberries, if home-grown, will also ripen. I'll bet you're right when talking about store-bought ones: I only buy them if they're already ripe and ready to eat, otherwise they go from unripe to rotten and moldy in a day or two at most. But yesterday I accidentally picked a strawberry that wasn't quite as ripe as I'd thought. I placed it in the window and this morning it was just about ready to eat.

Store-bought apples nowadays might be the right colour but they're so hard and not sweet. So I tried the leave in paper bag with banana method but no noticeable difference. Maybe I just don't leave them long enough. But MAYBE it's because the apples are waxed and therefore won't absorb the ethylene? Any thoughts? Maybe scrub the apples first?

Who said pineapple wouldn’t ripen after harvest has probably never experimented it.

This is a terrible misleading. Also, the reasoning of pineapples not ripening has no scientific proof.

We have tried different ways. The upside-down method has proven always work. We had cut it at various readiness. If you can call it an experiment, put a pineapple upside-down at a place you often pass by. As soon as you smell the pineapple specific aroma, it is ready. Don’t wait, it will be over-ripened soon.

It is sweet and tasty. Never fails.

Terribly misleading information.
Pineapples DO ripen further and a lot.

I too apparently live in the magical land of Canada.

Upside down is a decent way because it prevent mold, but I usually leave it near a window and give it a quarter spin once a while.
You will know when it's ready... That quarter spin will just spread the smell all around!

the most basic research shows all the commercial and educational resources state that pineapple does _not_ continue to ripen after picking.

one extensive resource is:
http://postharvest.ucdavis.edu/Commodity_Resources/Fact_Sheets/

briefly
(1) the sugar in a pineapple comes from the root of the plant; once cut no more sugar is 'converted' in the fruit proper.
(2) once cut, the pineapple begins to decay; the process of decay/rotting does make it softer.
(3) ease of pulling out leaves is not a sign of ripeness, it is indicative of the state of decay.