How to make Pineapple Boats

This is Papa. He is my grandpa and he has been making pineapple boats for as long as I can remember.

Every Christmas, Easter, and occasionally Thanksgiving, Papa makes his beautiful pineapple boats for everyone to enjoy. I asked him to give us a tutorial on how he makes his pineapple boats and being a sucker for the camera he said, "Sure!"

Here we go .... 

First meet Papa: Pineapple boat extraordinaire. 

What you need: A cutting board, a pineapple, a mallet, a big sharp knife, and a tiny carving knife. 

Now lay your pineapple on its side and line your knife up so it is directly in the middle of the pineapple. Now this is where Papa starts getting all crazy.

"Jessie, make sure your knife is lined up. Make sure the knife is exactly in the middle of the pineapple. If it's on the side you're going to screw it all up Jessie. Make sure the knife is lined up, do you hear me? Check the knife again. Is it lined up?"

"Yes, I hear you Papa. Position the knife to the side so everything goes crooked and I almost cut my finger off." Jessssssssieeee!

Make sure your knife is lined up folks.

Ok, now that your knife is lined up try and slice into the pineapple just a tiny bit so your knife is resting in a little grove. This way the knife won't go all wonky when you hit it with the mallet.  

Now hit the knife right in the middle with your mallet! 

Perfection.

Ok, you got the knife through the hardest part of the pineapple. Now gradually tap your mallet on the ends of the knife and push your knife all the way down to the cutting board until it splits the pineapple.

Even steven. We're looking good.

Now you need to halve the halves. One pineapple gives you 4 boats so we are basically quartering the pineapple. Do exactly as Papa taught you above. Line up your knife in the middle of the pineapple halve and hit it with your mallet.

Perfection again!
Now use the mallet to tap the rest of the knife through the pineapple. 

Here are your four pineapple boats. Now you can put the mallet and large knife away. All you need now is your small carving knife. 

Ok, pay attention. Take your little carving knife and insert it into the pineapple but right below the hard core of the pineapple. This is the thick portion that you would normally cut off. DO NOT break through this core. Just insert your knife right below the core as pictured abov

Now cut right below the core all the way to the other end of the pineapple. 

Stop.
See what we did? You never break through that top piece because this is what will hold your pineapple pieces in. 

Now from the line you just cut you are going to start cutting down and around. You are basically cutting out the entire edible portion of the pineapple. 

And around we go and then back up the other side.

Now you need to make little slices out of that giant piece. Papa just cut one inch slices right inside the pineapple boat.

Keep slicing. You will get about 6 slices per boat. 

Now you are going to push the slices through the boat in opposite directions. 

Now you can easily take a slice.

You should really put frilly tooth picks in each slice. I don't know what I was thinking but after all these pictures we ate the slices and I completely forgot to take a picture of one of the finished boats. Well, you get the point. Thanks Papa!