To Pick Out The Best Pineapple, Look Directly Into Its 'Eyes'

If you have ever wondered how to pick out a perfectly ripe pineapple, the answer is to look it in the eyes. According to Rick Martinez, cookbook author and chef, who shares his culinary knowledge on his Substack Sazón, a good way to know if a pineapple is ripe is to check if it has large, round, and evenly spaced eyes. However, it's not the only thing you should be looking for if you want a sweet, juicy pineapple. Martinez says that an ideal pineapple should have eyes that are gold in color.

"Pineapples can turn deep golden, almost like a banana," he says. "So that's sort of the ideal, which you'll probably never, ever see in the U.S." Pineapples grow in tropical climates, and they often travel far to get to American grocery store aisles. Since a pineapple with fully golden eyes is rare, Martinez says the next best thing is to look for ones with eyes that are around half green and half gold, as those will be sweeter than pineapples with all green eyes.

"All green is probably going to be super hard," he warns. "Even if the eyes are completely, evenly spaced, it's going to be tart and nothing else. And the other unfortunate thing is they don't get sweeter as they sit. If it's picked green and unripe and tart and hard, it's just going to stay that way until it starts to rot."

You can still pick the best pineapple at the grocery store with a simple test if the eyes aren't fully golden. Touch and see if the fruit has a little give, or pull on one of its spiky leaves to see if it comes loose. If the leaf slides out easily, it's a sign that the pineapple isn't underripe. Another way to judge the ripeness of a pineapple is to smell it. Chances are, if it has a sweet, fruity scent, it's likely to also taste sweet once you cut the pineapple open.

Size can also be an indicator of how sweet your pineapple will be. Rick Martinez says that the smaller the pineapple, the sweeter it will be. "They're called piña de miel, which means honey or syrup pineapple, because they're literally super sweet," he says. "If any pineapple is super gigantic, it's probably just full of water and nothing else."

If you ever find yourself with an unripe pineapple covered in green eyes, Martinez advises coaxing out the flavor by roasting it. Heat evaporates excess moisture, leaving the fruit with a more concentrated, caramelized flavor that makes the pineapple taste riper than it really is. In the case of being stuck with an overripe pineapple, you can make a pineapple margarita with a smoky twist by turning the roasted pieces into a shrub. Martinez says, "If a cocktail recipe calls for a simple syrup, just use [the shrub] instead, and you'll have this pineapple-flavored drink. Pineapple margaritas are amazing!"