What is a pineapple?
The evolution of the pineapple, a fruit symbolic of the delicious and sun-soaked tropics, remains largely a mystery but it was originally grown in Brazil. In most languages, the word for pineapple comes from the Brazilian Tupi Indian word nana or anana, meaning excellent fruit. The pineapple is a composite fruit formed of up to 200 berry-like seedless fruitlets which have coalesced together, resulting in a skin with a repetitive ridged pattern. It grows upright on the stem of a short plant with distinctively large and spikey leaves. Pineapple contains bromelin, an enzyme which breaks down protein, similar to the enzyme papain, which comes from the papaya and is used as a meat tenderiser. The enzyme is so strong that factory workers who can the fruit have to wear rubber gloves to avoid having their skin eaten away. You can rub pineapple over tough cuts of meat before cooking to help tenderise them. Rare for a fruit, the pineapple does not continue to ripen after it is picked since it ha
