Pineapple Prep - Best Method?

Hello group brain!

I bought a nice pineapple. This instead of the pre-prepared stuff and its damned plastic clamshell packaging. It's turned partially gold and it's a little soft, so I think (?) it's ready to eat.

What I've got:
- big sharp knife
- big cutting board
- hunger for pineapple

What I haven't got:
- a clue about how to prep it with minimal waste of tasty pineapple

Suggestions?

If you want to eat it all at once, cut the top and bottom off, then use the knife to peal it, don't go deep enough to get the eyes just the skin, then look at the eyes, you will see they form a spiral pattern right round the thing, and if you cut thin groves in a spiral from eye to eye you'll get them all out with minimal, wastage. now you have a large hunk of edible pineapple enjoy.

to avoid wasting the rind and the little bit of flesh that always comes with it, i almost always make a batch of tepache from it. one pineapple rind (plus the core, if you don’t want to eat that), two cinnamon sticks, and a couple cups of honey (sugar is traditional, but my wife can’t do the cane), plus water to fill a gallon jar, left to wild-ferment for a few days until the sourness comes up to balance the sweet - delicious! strain off, put in jars in the fridge, they last at least a month...but sometimes need to be burped.

mixed with tequila, it makes a better margarita (to my taste) than a real one. but nice on its own too.

I would add: after you get the top, bottom, and skin/eyes off, cut the pineapple in half top to bottom, then cut each half top to bottom so you have quarters. Stand each quarter on the bottom edge and cut the hard central core out (occasionally you`ll get one that doesn't have a woody core but in my experience it's almost always worth doing).

Save the skins, cores, etc and freeze them. Next week, after you've eaten your lovely pineapple and almost forgotten about it, blend these frozen bits with water in a blender. Add a handful of some kind of mint if you have any in the garden and it's to your taste. Strain out all the fibers (the juice will be FOAMY), add some sweetener, and you've got some great juice.

(edited to add: my mother in law takes the skins/eyes/cores and boils them in some water, strains out all the stuff without blending when cool, and adds sweetener, which makes a different kind of great juice or even a super additive for cocktails/mocktails/tea/etc)

Don't forget to set the top in a shallow container to grow a new pineapple plant!  

That is my favorite part of a pineapple.

A batch of tepache sounds good.  That is a new one for me and also making the juice in a blender.

I personally think the core is the best bit and to hear people blending or otherwise throwing it out is really sad! yes it's a bit tougher than the outside but it doesn't have as much of the mouth puckeringness either.

Skandi, as we're getting a bit older we apply the question: "is this food worth ruining my dental work for?" and with pineapple core, the answer is generally no. Then again, pineapple is a local, cheap food for us (and the taste of a local, fresh pineapple is a world away from the ones I've had outside of Brazil, not acidic at all) -- I can understand wanting to use every single bit when that's not the case!