Organic dried pineapple — chewy, intensely tart-sweet rings or chunks with the water taken out and nothing added.
Why it looks the way it does
The translucent, jewel-yellow dried pineapple found in most shops is usually two things this is not: sulphured, with sulphur dioxide (E220) to keep the colour bright, and candied, soaked in sugar syrup before drying so that a good part of what you are eating is added sugar rather than fruit.
Neither is permitted in organic production. Without them, pineapple dries to a matt pale gold or light brown and is opaque rather than glassy. It also tastes considerably sharper, because there is no syrup rounding off the fruit's natural acidity.
That acidity is the point. Pineapple is one of the more acidic fruits, and concentrating it by drying produces something genuinely bracing — much less bland than dried mango or banana.
The tingle on your tongue
Pineapple contains bromelain, a group of enzymes that break down protein. It is why fresh pineapple makes your mouth feel raw if you eat a lot of it, why it will not set in a gelatine jelly, and why it is used as a meat tenderiser. Drying reduces the activity considerably but a little sharpness on the tongue is normal and harmless.
Using it
As a snack, chopped into granola or a trail mix, or soaked in warm water and blitzed into a purée. It is particularly good in savoury cooking, where the acidity does real work: chopped into a rice salad, a slaw, a curry, or a salsa with chilli and coriander.
Honestly, on sugar and teeth
Drying concentrates sugar four- to fivefold by weight, and dried fruit is sticky in a way fresh fruit is not — it clings to teeth, which dentists mind more than the sugar itself. Combined with pineapple's acidity, it is worth eating with a meal rather than grazing, and rinsing with water afterwards. A portion is about 30 g.
treatfuls
treatfuls
treatfuls
