Pineapple made even better with cinnamon and smoke
A Smokey Sweet Treat and Side Dish
Pineapple raw and on its own is pretty awesome. I don’t think I need to explain why Smoked Fireball Pineapple is awesome, but just in case:
- It’s easy to slice and prepare
- It smokes quickly on the side of your main course
- Smoked pineapple is sweet, delicious, and brings out the flavor of smoked meats.
Adult Treat made with Fireball
If you were ever a drinker in your 20s, you probably know about Fireball. For anyone else, it’s a sweet cinnamon whiskey. I particularly like it mixed with cola.
Fireball works really well in this recipe because the alcohol quickly permeates the pineapple slices, leaving cinnamon flavor throughout.
The trick is that by cooking the pineapple, the alcohol evaporates off. When smoked at 250F, it doesn’t take very long for all the alcohol to evaporate. You’ll find that after 20-30 minutes, there won’t be any alcoholic bite left.
Leftover Fireball
At Fresh Cooked Fun we pride ourselves on not wasting good alcohol. After you remove pineapple, the leftover Fireball is still good to drink.
Even better, a lot of pineapple flavor transfers back into the Fireball. I find the drinks I made with the leftovers have a completely new and wonderful flavor. Fireball and coke becomes pineapple Fireball and coke!
Since there will be fruit chunks and juices mixed into the liquor that can go bad, I would refrigerate it and use it within a few days.
Non-alcoholic alternatives to Smoked Fireball Pineapple
It’s possible you don’t have or want to use Fireball. Not to fear, you can use cinnamon and brown sugar to obtain a similar flavor profile. Mix a quarter cup of cinnamon and a tablespoon of brown sugar together, and sprinkle liberally over both sides of the pineapple slices, then smoke as per the recipe.
What if I don’t have a smoker?
If you don’t have a smoker, you can also grill the pineapple to great success. I liked this recipe by the blog “Save the Best” for a non-alcoholic recipe. They essentially cover the pineapple in sugar and cinnamon before grilling it.
You can grill them the same way with Fireball soaked pineapple too. Follow our recipe up until the point of putting the slices into the smoker. Instead, lay them out on the grill and flip them once the bottoms are browned. After both sides are sufficiently golden brown, you can pull the slices from the grill.
Burning on your tongue? Not with smoked pineapple.
If you like eating pineapple anywhere near as much as I do, you’ve undoubtedly felt the stinging sensation raw pineapple can leave on your lips and mouth. The stinging caused by raw pineapple is due to an enzyme called bromelain. This enzyme breaks down proteins in your mouth, and in doing so exposes your cells to the acid of the pineapple.
The good news is that cooking pineapple will denature the enzymes; essentially deactivating them. This means no amount of our smoked pineapple will burn your mouth!
Goes great with barbeque and smoked meats
Like I mentioned above, smoked pineapple really brings out the flavor of smoked meats. This follows the concept of a “sweet-out”. While eating a lot of savory barbeque meat, you’ll become desensitized to some of the savory goodness of the meat. Sweet foods like pineapple will reset your flavor pallet, and when you go back for more meat you’ll find it tasted even better than before.
I know that sounds crazy, but you should just try it!
I cooked mine at the same time as a smoked sirloin tip roast, and they went together fantastically. Some other great smoked meats to make with this pineapple include:
Let's make Smoked Fireball Pineapple!
Smoked Fireball Pineapple
Equipment
- 1 Smoker
Ingredients
- 1 large pineapple ripe
- 2.5 Cups Fireball Whiskey
Instructions
- Start by preparing the pineapple. Using a sharp knife, preferably longer than the pineapple is wide, cut off the top and bottom.
- Then slice off the skin around the body of the pineapple. You don’t need to cut very deep to remove the skin.
- Slice the pineapple now into half inch thick slices. You can go thinner, maybe down to a quarter inch thick if you prefer it. Then cut out the centers of each slice to remove the core. If you have a de-coring tool you can use it before slicing.
- Lay out the pineapple in a Pyrex bowl. Try to keep the size of the bowl not much larger than the available pineapple, as you don’t want to waste a lot of Fireball trying to submerge the pineapple.
- Pour the Fireball over the pineapple. You may need to use more if the pineapple is not well covered. My top layer of pineapple just touches the Fireball, and it worked out fine. Cover the Pyrex and gently shake it. Let it rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
- Preheat your smoker to 250F. If you’re already smoking something else at anything above 200F, you can just add it to the smoker. Smoke the slices for 30 minutes to 1 hour, then enjoy.
