Ananas comosus, a tropical fruit of impressive appearance and attractive flavour, now grown in hot regions all round the world. The main producers are Hawaii and Malaysia. The bulk of the crop goes for canning.
This is a composite fruit formed of 100–200 berry-like fruitlets fused together, giving its outside a tessellated appearance. It grows on a short stem springing from a low plant with large swordlike leaves, small versions of which form the crown of the fruit. Fruits of normal size (there are miniature forms) average about 15 cm (6″). Weight ranges from around 1 or 2 kg (2 to 5 lb) to an extreme of 10 kg (over 20 lb); but only the Giant Kew variety reaches this extreme.
The original home of the pineapple was the lowlands of Brazil, where several Ananas species grow wild. Some of these bear edible but seedy fruits. No primitive form of the modern pineapple, which is almost invariably seedless, has been found, and the evolution of the fruit we know remains a mystery; but cultivation had certainly spread from Brazil to the W. Indies before the Europeans arrived. Despite being seedless, the plant is easily propagated by cuttings which may be taken from several places on the plant, including the crown of the fruit, and which remain viable for a long time even if they become dry.
In 1493 Columbus' expedition discovered the pineapple on Guadeloupe, and were astonished and delighted by its qualities. Later explorers were equally struck by what Sir Walter Ralegh called ‘the princesse of fruits’. As Columbus returned to Spain, he brought with him a load of pineapples, all of which had perished by the time he made land save one, which he presented to King Ferdinand, his sponsor. The royal reaction was immediate and positive, although when a fruit was presented to his successor, the Emperor Charles V (reigned 1519–29), he refused, with characteristic hesitancy, to touch it. Most people were more enthusiastic in their response, and pineapple cultivation spread quickly throughout the tropics. The main influence was that of the Portuguese sailors who traded to and from Brazil. This is why in most languages the word for the fruit is descended from the Brazilian Tupi Indian word nana or anana (excellent fruit), and not from the name pina (pine cone) which its first Spanish discoverers gave it because of its appearance. This double naming has given rise to some spectacular misunderstandings by culinary historians. Until the end of the 17th century, most mentions in English cookery books of ‘pine apples’ referred in fact to pine kernels. The enthusiasm with which early documentary references to ‘pine apples’ have been greeted as indisputable proof of adoption of the fruit by Tudor fashionistas is thus entirely misplaced.
By the middle of the 16th century the pineapple was being grown in India, and not long afterwards it had reached Java and China. But it was much later, in 1777, that the fruit was introduced to Pacific islands by Captain Cook.
Europeans, meanwhile, were captivated by the fruit but Beauman (2005) makes clear that they were unable to grow it from scratch until the Dutch had developed hothouses with hot beds in the 1680s. The first to be grown from a cutting in England was by a Dutch gardener, Henry Telende, for Sir Matthew Decker in Richmond, Surrey, in about 1714. Earlier examples, such as that produced by John Rose for Charles II in 1661, were merely whole plants brought from the W. Indies and ripened in England. The celebrated and mysterious painting of Rose presenting the fruit to the King alludes to his achievements with at least two pots containing young pineapple plants. Charles is said to have consumed it with relish, showing better judgement than his Spanish namesake. Fashionable enthusiasm for pineapples can be seen in the frequency with which they appear as a decorative motif in the buildings and furniture of the next hundred years.
Hothouse cultivation of pineapples as an expensive luxury continued in several European countries into the 19th century, and was developed into a fine art by the great Victorian gardeners of the 19th century in England. But when the varieties which they developed (Cayenne and Queen) were introduced to the Azores, which were just near enough for the perishable cargo to survive the voyage to W. Europe, the reason for hothouse cultivation disappeared.
Pineapple canning began in Hawaii in 1892 and in Malaya/Singapore at about the same time. It is now a big industry. It also became possible to send fresh pineapples for considerable, but limited, distances in refrigerated ships.
Of the main varieties grown for eating fresh the two listed first are long-established ones, both of which are also used by canners:
In recent years several small varieties, whose core is edible, have come on the market.
A pineapple, unlike many other fruits, does not continue to ripen or sweeten after picking, since it has no reserve of starch to be converted into sugar. On the contrary, it will start gradually to deteriorate; and, at best, may be stored for no more than 4–6 weeks. So the trade in fresh pineapples, other than those consumed locally or exported by air, is a matter of nice calculation; fully ripe fruit cannot be used, but the fruits picked must be as near ripe as possible.
A fully ripe pineapple can be identified by pulling out a leaf from the crown; it will come away fairly easily. The smell should be pleasantly aromatic, not suggestive of incipient fermentation. When pineapple is canned, the fruit is trimmed severely to make the rings fit the can, and also to ensure that no little bits of skin are left in the flesh. The offcuts are used for juice. The harder core is also removed, and may be made into candied pineapple.
Another pineapple product is the jelly-like nata made in Latin America by bacterial fermentation of the trimmings. Vinegar is sometimes made from cannery waste.
See also canned foods.
Alan Davidson was a distinguished author and publisher, and one of the world's best-known writers on fish and fish cookery. In 1975 he retired early from the diplomatic service—after serving in, among other places, Washington, Egypt, Tunisia, and Laos, where he was British Ambassador—to pursue a fruitful second career as a food historian and food writer extraordinaire. Among his popular books are Seafood of South-East Asia, North Atlantic Seafood, and Mediterranean Seafood. In 2003, shortly before his death, he was awarded the Erasmus Prize for his contribution to European culture.
Beauman, Fran (2005), The Pineapple, London: Chatto & Windus.
