Pineapple Slicers

I realized that besides grilling and eating cheese, there's something that we do a lot of here on Fire Island. No, still not that! Its grilling Pineapples! Now when we first started out doing this, we relied on a sharp knife and plenty of patience, but although the knife was fun, the patience started wearing a bit thin. Enter the pineapple slicer!! Dan bought two different kinds of pineapple slicers and we tried them out. Although both worked, and one has some advantages in terms of presentation, we both agreed on a clear favorite.

Vacuvin makes a pineapple slicer that consists of a handle and three different sized plastic blades. The slicer works like a pineapple corkscrew. You push down and turn the handle and get a continuous spiral of pineapple. Sort of like a pineapple curly fry. The advantage of the Vacuvin is that the pineapple shell is preserved, so you can use it as a drink holder or other decorative object. The multiple sizes of cutting blades are also a plus. The disadvantage is the cutting hole in which the pineapple passes clogs easily, leading to thinner and thinner slices as you screw down the pineapple. For most cooking purposes, this makes the device more of a problem than its worth. Although we got ours at Zabar's, if you Google the words "Vacuvin Pineapple Slicer" you will get a multitude of vendors willing to sell it to you.

The second device is pictured above. It has no name, and basically consists of two sharp metal wheels and a handle. Although its difficult to preserve the pineapple shell, it quickly cores a pineapple and removes it from the shell, allowing you to cut the slices to whatever thickness you desire. This slicer was available at Zabar's, and I could not find it anywhere on the internet.

Either way, you'll be fine. But the second corer, although it will kill the shell, will give you much more attractive and uniform fruit.

ADDENDUM: You can get the pineapple slicer right here online from Maui Pineapple