I have received a number of emails over the last few months from readers asking me to take a stab at the smoked swineapple and to give instructions for making one.
If you have not heard about this or seen one of these it is simply a pineapple peeled and cored out, stuffed with pork, wrapped in bacon and smoked long enough to cook the meat (if required) and crisp up the bacon.
Here's my take on the recipe and instructions for what some folks are calling the “Amazing Swineapple”.
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As with all pork, my original rub makes the rib meat more than it could ever be by itself and compliments this swineapple in a way that must be experienced to truly understand. It just works!
I also used my original sauce on the inside and my original rub on the bacon-wrapped outside for some mean layers of flavor.
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- Prep Time: 45 minutes
- Cook Time: 3-5 hours
- Smoker Temp: 240°F
- Meat Finish Temp: 150°F
- Recommended Wood: Cherry or Apple
- 1-2 ripe pineapples
- 1-2 lbs of pork country style ribs or pork ribs (cooked tender and bones removed)
- 1 lb of bacon
- Jeff’s original rub recipe (purchase recipes here)
The options are wide open here with the only requirement being you use pork of some kind. This could be ham, de-boned ribs, country style ribs, pulled pork.. you get the idea.
I chose to use country style ribs made from pork butt in mine.
I also chose to precook the meat for safety purposes. I have seen a lot of these made with raw meat but cooking it first is safer and it means that the swineapple is in the smoker for less time.. just enough to crisp the bacon and get some smoke flavor.
My pork country style ribs had some bone here and there so I found all of it and cut it out. fortunately for me, most of it was on the ends.
Lay all of the country style ribs into a foil pan and coat it with regular yellow mustard to help the rub to stick really well.
Apply my original rub (purchase recipes here) generously to all sides of the meat then place the meat into the smoker at 225-240°F for about 4 hours or until it reaches 175-180°F.
If you are cooking lean meat like pork loin, it only needs to go to 145°F.
Pork ribs like baby backs should be cooked as usual using the 2-2-1 or the 3-2-1 method to make them really tender so you can just pull the bones right out.
Once the meat is done cooking, it is ready to stuff into the pineapple.
While the meat is cooking, get the pineapple ready.
This includes removing the top, peeling the pineapple, removing the eyes and hollowing out the inside of the pineapple like a mug.
I would be lying if I said this was quick and easy, it takes a bit (or perhaps I am just slow) and I think if you get in a hurry you risk splitting the pineapple.
I opted to leave the bottom intact. I have seen folks hollow out the pineapples like a tube but in my opinion, it makes more sense to only hollow out the insides and leave the bottom in place to keep things from falling out.
This is more difficult but it is worth it in the end.
First remove the top. Slice about ¾ of an inch below the top and set that aside. We'll be using it again.
Using a very sharp knife, cut the peel from the pineapple along the sides.
Remove the eyes either by cutting them out one by one or by using the spiral method shown below:
Now hollow out the inside of the pineapple using a sharp knife and some patience.
I used a sharp knife to cut around the perimeter to the depth I wanted. I then carefully whittled out the fruit piece by piece until the entire insides were removed with only a ¾ inch wall around the sides and a ¾ floor on the bottom.
Once the pineapple is hollowed out, it's ready to stuff.
Stuff the Pineapple
Place as much of the meat as possible into the hollow of the pineapple.
Be careful of stuffing to much so it does not try to split.
Drizzle some of my barbecue sauce (purchase recipes here) down into the meat for extra flavor.
Add some of the crushed pineapple on top of the meat if you like.
Place the top of the pineapple back into position on top of the stuffed pineapple.
Note: some folks use a bacon weave but I opted to just wrap. Both methods work great.
Use 3-4 long wooden skewers to secure the top to the rest of the ensemble.
You can then cut the sticks off. I like to leave ½ inch of the stick above the pineapple so I'll have something to grab when I'm ready to pull them out.
Bacon can be stretched up to nearly twice it's length (if you are careful) and this is perfect for wrapping pineapple since you will most likely need about 16 inches of bacon to make it all the way around the pineapple with a little overlap.
Measure the circumference of your pineapple just to make sure.
Lay down about 6 strips of stretched bacon slightly overlapping on the sides.
Lay the pineapple onto the bacon and bring the bacon over the top of the pineapple trying to cover it completely.
Now roll the pineapple to finish the wrapping process.
Secure the ends of the bacon with small toothpicks.
Sprinkle Jeff's original rub (purchase recipes here) all over the outside of the pineapple.
Set the finished pineapple up onto a Weber grill pan or a cookie sheet and it is ready for the smoker.
Set up your smoker for indirect cooking at about 240°F and place the pan with the pineapple into the smoker.
Keep the smoker going for about 3 hours or until the bacon starts to crisp.
When the smoked swineapple is finished remove it from the smoker and admire your artwork.
Remove the skewers holding on the top and the toothpicks that held the bacon in place.
Remove the top, slice and serve immediately.
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Printable Recipe
- 1-2 ripe pineapples
- 2 lbs of pork country style ribs or pork ribs (cooked tender and bones removed)
- 1 lb of bacon
- Jeff’s original rub recipe
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Cut top from pineapple.
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Remove skin and eyes.
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Core out inside leaving about ¾ inch wall on sides and bottom.
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Fill with smoked country style ribs or baby back rib meat seasoned with rub.
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Replace top and secure with long toothpicks.
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Make a bacon weave large enough to wrap completely around pineapple.
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Wrap in bacon weave -or-
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Wrap stretched bacon around the pineapple.
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Smoke at 240°F for about 4 hours or until bacon is crisp.
Have made this twice. Turned out good both times- second time was better. I can see how the pork could get pasty. First time I used smoked pork strips – inside was too dry. Second time used crock-pot pork with pineapple mixed in – turned out better – but may be a little too moist (perhaps pasty?). Bacon need to be on “thick” or it disappears – depends on the bacon.
All that said – the crowd loved it and wants more. There are NO LEFT OVERS. arrgg..
You might give thought to venting the bottom of the pineapple let some of all that juice out so the meat is not marinating in warm juice while smoking.
That’s what is making it turn to mush.
I have been wanting to make one of these for a while. After reading some reviews, it gives me pause. Seems to me that cooking the ribs first makes sense, that way you don’t have to have them in the pineapple that long, thus reducing the chance of mushy pork. Since once the bacon is on the pineapple, the only reason to put it back on the smoker is to crisp the bacon- high heat for a shorter time seems like a better way to go. Comments? Suggestions?
I have to agree with the other reviewers. Even though I pre-smoked the meat, it came out pasty, mushy and tasteless. If I do try this recipe again, I plan to pre-smoke the pineapple, then stuff with pork, wrap with bacon and place it back on the smoker at a much higher temperature to crisp up the bacon. The idea being to reduce the amount of time the stuffing is exposed to the pineapple juices. If my idea doesn’t work, then this recipe is getting discarded.
Tried this also, the meat did get a little pasty. I used pork roast and cut it in small chunks, figure to use larher chunks to mabe correct that. Problem i keep having is anytime wrapped in bacon i do, the bacon is never crispy and i don’t know what to do to correct this. As fpr the pineapple i used an apple coring tool and a melon baller to clean out the center with relative ease.
I’m doing this for the second time tomorrow. Although for the filling I use a mixture of smoked pulled pork with onions and (bell) peppers. A slice of the finished product resembles a patty so I put it on a bun! Happy Birthday ‘Merica.
Hi Jeff,
I just wanted to share a tip for cleaning the pineapple. After cutting off the top I cut a circle with a sharp knife inside of the pineapple, I then used my all metal kitchen tongs and grabbed the core…..while someone held the pineapple still I turned the tongs a few times and loosened the core, I then pulled and the core came right out. I then cut a little deeper and did the same thing. When I got most of the core out I just cut and scooped out a bit more of the pinapple until the hole was the size I wanted. I then peeled the outside of the pineapple. This was very easy to do and took hardly any time at all!
I haven’t smoked this yet but wil let you know how it comes out…..thanks for all the great recipes, love your cookbook!
I’d like to leave this recipe here…
“The Real Cherry Garcia” Cornish Hens.
The stuffing: split fresh dark bing cherries lots
Fresh blueberries a handful
Fresh strawberries cut into 1/3 the bigger the better.
6-8 huge cloves of garlic peeled and chunked
1 white onion chunked
Toss with kosher salt and some white vinegar and refrigerate overnight.
Rub Cornish hens lightly with kosher salt and rough cracked pepper corns.
Stuff mixture into Cornish hens. Tie by the drumsticks, allow to drain like tea bags for a bit before putting in smoker.
Smoke at 250ish for roughly 8hrs. The fruit will baste the meat.
My comments keep getting deleted. As I stated before, I used pork loins and I prepped those as I always do. Once the whole thing came out of the smoker, which held temp the entire time; the meat came out pasty and similar to spam (just without that great spam taste). Skip this recipe and just add some pineapple juice to your pulled pork.
***Hey Jeff, quit deleting my comments, if you can’t take a little criticism, stop posting online recipes. I didn’t say anything bad about you, just the recipe here. I am sure that 99.99% of your recipes are great, just not this one. My email is entered and legit, so hit me back if you want to discuss details.
Mike, We do not delete comments that contain critiques.. in fact, we love that. We did have a server issue a few days ago and had to restore the site from a backup that was 2 days old. Keep the comments coming and that’s how everyone gets better and learns.
Regarding the problem you are referring to, mine did not turn out pasty but I have heard a few people say that theirs was mushy or had an unpleasant texture. Pineapple is a known meat tenderizer and it is always possible for the meat to become extremely tender when it is in contact with pineapple juice for that long. I will continue experimenting with different types of meat inside of the pineapple.. both raw and cooked.
I just posted a recipe a few weeks back with pulled pork, pineapple and jalapeno which can be seen here.
Jeff,
Sorry, I thought my comments were getting deleted, thanks for getting back to me about it. I was pretty bummed when the swineapple didn’t work out. I will give it another attempt.
Mike
I made this today. It was a pain to clean out the pineapple and the bacon disappeared! Cooked away to nothing left. Smells good, tastes ok but not worth the time it took to clean.
Tried a different version of this twice without cooking the meat first and the meat, while done came out mushy and not tasting good. The guy that originally posted the recipe on a BBQ page on Facebook always told the ones that it didn’t work out for that they didn’t do it right but would never tell what “the right way” was. There were more that it didn’t work out for than did. Jeff is taking the smarter approach, in my opinion, by cooking the meat first.