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Grapefruit Hawaiian
Remove center membrane from half a grapefruit, and loosen sections with a grapefruit knife. Sprinkle with powdered sugar. Fill the center with crushed pineapple. Chill overnight before serving.
A cold first course from the era when a dressed grapefruit half opened the Sunday table. The work is all in the knife, and it must be done the night before.
- Powdered sugarMost likely what we would call confectioners' sugar, though in older books the term sometimes meant simply a finer-ground sugar. Modern confectioners' sugar contains a little cornstarch as an anti-caking agent; granulated or superfine sugar dissolves more cleanly into the juice. About a teaspoon per half.
- Loosening the sectionsA grapefruit knife is a short curved serrated blade. Run it between each segment and the surrounding membrane, then around the inside of the rind, so the flesh lifts out with a spoon. A small paring knife or a serrated steak knife will do the same work.
- Crushed pineappleThe recipe assumes canned crushed pineapple in syrup. Drain it well or the juice will pool and dilute the grapefruit; pineapple in its own juice gives a less cloying result.
- Why overnightThe chilling is not decorative. The sugar draws juice from the loosened sections and the pineapple syrup migrates into them, so the fruit tastes seasoned rather than layered. Four hours will do at a minimum.
- CoveringCover each half tightly with film before it goes into the refrigerator. Cut citrus picks up odours quickly.
- Fresh pineappleIf you substitute fresh pineapple, chop it fine and use it the same day; it does not hold as well as the canned fruit over a long chill.
- YieldOne half per person, served in a shallow bowl or a footed glass so the juice does not run. Half a grapefruit per guest means one fruit serves two.
- Grapefruit and medicationWorth a word to guests: grapefruit interacts with a number of common prescription drugs, most notably statins. It is the one fruit at breakfast that sometimes has to be declined.
Grapefruit only became an American breakfast fixture in the early twentieth century, once Florida and Texas groves and refrigerated rail cars made it cheap enough to halve and throw away the middle. The "Hawaiian" in the title most likely comes from the pineapple rather than any island tradition: after the Hawaiian canning industry scaled up in the first decades of the century, canned pineapple became shorthand for the tropics on mainland menus, and dishes containing it were often named for the islands. The dish belongs to a broader vogue for chilled, make-ahead courses that could be assembled the night before and set out with no cooking at all.