Eating grapefruits (messily)
Growing up is like, complicated. I have all these things to learn. I’ve recently had to figure out how to do the insurance thing, the prescription drug thing, the public transportation thing, the bank account thing, the asking-your-boss-for-things thing, the getting-your-car-fixed thing, the dealing-with-crazy-people thing, and many other things. Amazing that people can “do life.” I find it quite complicated.
Today’s challenge was grapefruits. I ate three of them. Delicious red grapefruits they were, but I had (and have) one problem: I don’t really know how to eat them. They are tasty and juicy and sour—three excellent qualities—but their seeds and stringy entrails present eating challenges.
My solution is to slice the grapefruit in half and sink my teeth into one slide, slurping up juice and bits of the grapefruit in something of an iterative manner. When I extract most of the juice from one side, I move to the other. When most of the juice has been extracted, I begin gnawing at the fruit and truly “eating” it rather than “slurping” it. Finally, I grip it with both hands and basically wipe it all over my face, cleaning off all the grapefruit meat from the inside of the skin. It helps to actually turn the skin inside out at this point.
Needless to say, at the end of this rather animalistic process, I am covered in sticky grapefruit juice and have often accidentally squirted juice onto clothes or furniture, usually during the slurping stage.
I know there is a better way to eat grapefruits. Epicurious refers to a “pointed grapefruit spoon,” which sounds positively ridiculous. They say the fruit should be eaten with this specialized tool or a simple teaspoon. I feel that would leave much of the tasty grapefruit meat un-devoured. Do you have any suggestions for eating grapefruits? I need guidance.
Update: Guidance has arrived. Four people offered a total of four ways to eat grapefruits.
- Margie proposed the grapefruit knife. The knife is used to separate the fruit from the rhind, and the meat of the fruit is scooped out after separation. My dad also vouched for this technique, but he did not mention a special knife.
- Deja likes the grapefruit spoon better. The spoon seems more efficient, as it combines the separating function of the knife with the eating utility of, well, a spoon.
- My mother recommended cutting the grapefruit first into halves, then extracting the meat by slicing out the quarters in each half.
- A second option presented by my mother as “special” but labor-intensive is to peel the fruit like an orange, peel away the underlying membrane, and eat the grapefruit piece by piece. One avoids the bitter membrane and concentrates on the sour-sweet flavor of the grapefruit itself.
March 22nd, 2004 at 9:45 am
I have a special Grapefruit knife; the blade is spear-like, serated on both sides, and bent in a way that allows the user to stick it into the grapefruit and slide it between the rhine and fruit separating them effortlessly. I think my Mom got it at a Pampered Chief Party because I’ve never seem one like it at a store. I don’t use it very often because if I eat too many grapefruits I get a stomach ache.
I would suggest shopping for one of these online or at William Sonoma or Sur la Table.
March 22nd, 2004 at 3:18 pm
tom! your “solution” is no solution. i, too, cherish the grapefruit. i, too, encountered this complication (although as a child). the grapefruit-eater should never feel the need to “turn the skin inside out”!!! the pointed grapefruit spoon IS the way to go. it’s 100% functional, and scrapes all of the “meat” from the rind. i’ll be sure to bring one as a gift on 4/20…
March 22nd, 2004 at 4:07 pm
These comments certainly confirm my grapefruit naiveté.
April 6th, 2004 at 9:31 am
Just peel it and eat it like an orange. That’s what I do. You need to practice some peeling technique to get it right…but soon you’ll be stripping down the wonderful fruit faster than a NASCAR pit stop. But be careful, eating too many a day can have you parked on the crapper for quite a while…as you may have already learned!
November 23rd, 2004 at 9:05 am
This isn’t about grapefruit, but about Pampered Chief products. I have had two pie plates and never used them. Now I want to. Do you season them first? How? Urgent! Important! Holiday stressed! Thank you. Mary Ann
November 23rd, 2004 at 9:34 am
Hi. In overwhelming fashion, I am the wrong person to ask.
June 5th, 2005 at 8:36 am
No skin no membrane make it a wonderful tasty fruit. Great method for eating alone or adding to salads.
First cut off one end of the grapefruit so it will stand easily. Cut deep enough that you remove the membrane as well as the skin. Now that it is standing cut strips down all aroung removing the membrane as well as the skin as before. When all of the skin and membrane are removed you will be able to slice out the pulp following the inside sections of the grapefruit easily. Enjoy.
February 18th, 2006 at 3:22 pm
The easiest way, fast and relatively clean: take a grapefruit, a small plate and a knife. Slice the grapefruit length-wise in eight slices, and just eat those out of the skin, whith your mouth above the plate!
October 1st, 2007 at 10:39 am
I don’t understand grapefruit :(