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Pineapple canning recipes are a way to catch fresh pineapple at its peak and keep that bright tropical flavor on the pantry shelf year-round. Most of us aren’t growing pineapple in the backyard, but when you spot a good sale on ripe fruit, a few jars of home-canned pineapple taste worlds better than anything from the store.
Pineapple is naturally high in both acid and sugar, which makes it one fruit you can put up without much fuss.
There’s more you can do with a pineapple than can it in chunks. You can press it for juice, pickle it into sweet-tangy spears, fold it into a tropical salsa, cook it down into jam, or pair it with other fruit in a pie filling. Because pineapple is acidic, every recipe here goes through the water bath canner, with no pressure canner needed.
I’ve grouped them by type below so you can find whatever suits the fruit you’ve got on hand. They all sit alongside the rest of my fruit canning recipes, ready for winter.
Canning Pineapple
The simplest place to start is canning pineapple in chunks, packed in its own juice, a light syrup, or plain water. Peel and core the fruit, cut it to size, and give it a short simmer before packing, and you’ll have jars ready for desserts, smoothies, and snacking all year.
Home-canned pineapple keeps more of its fresh flavor than the canned stuff from the store, and you get to decide how much sugar goes in. You can hot pack it for firmer fruit, or raw pack it if you’d rather skip the extra step.
Pineapple Juice & Syrup
Pineapple gives up a good amount of juice, and the cores you’d otherwise toss are full of flavor too. Canned pineapple juice is handy for drinks, marinades, and as the canning liquid for the chunks in the section above.
Cook that juice down with a little sugar, and you’ve got a syrup for pancakes, ice cream, and cocktails. Pineapple takes especially well to pear in a syrup, rounding out the tartness with something mellow.
Pickled Pineapple
Pickled pineapple turns the fruit sweet and tangy at once, and the vinegar brine keeps it firm in the jar. It’s a fun thing to have on hand, and since the brine adds plenty of acid, it processes in a water bath canner like any other pickle.
I keep two styles around. A warmly spiced version with cinnamon and clove, and a spicy one with chili heat for tacos, burgers, and cheese boards. Both are lovely alongside ham or pork, and they fit right in with the rest of my fruit pickling recipes.
Pineapple Salsa
Pineapple is made for salsa, where its sweetness plays off chiles and onion for something you’ll want on everything. These tested recipes balance the fruit with enough acid to can safely, so the heat and sweetness are locked in for the shelf.
My pineapple mango salsa leans on the tropical fruit pairing, while the heat-forward versions bring habanero and chili into the mix. Spoon any of them over tacos, grilled fish, or a block of cream cheese, and browse my salsa canning recipes for even more.
- Pineapple Mango Salsa
- Caramelized Pineapple Habanero Salsa
- Pineapple Papaya Chili Salsa
- Pineapple Salsa (No Tomatoes)
Pineapple Jelly
Pineapple pepper jelly brings sweet and heat together in a way that’s right at home on a cheese board. The fruit’s natural sugar softens the chile bite, and a spoonful over cream cheese with crackers tends to disappear fast at a gathering.
It also makes a quick glaze for chicken, pork, or shrimp, brushed on in the last few minutes of cooking. Like the salsa, it carries enough acid to process safely in a water bath canner.
I was hoping to find a plain pineapple jelly recipe without peppers, but there isn’t one currently on the internet. I hope to change that shortly!
Pineapple Chutney
Pineapple chutney is a natural fit, since the fruit’s sweetness and acidity are made for the sweet-and-sour, spiced profile of a good chutney alongside ham, pork, or a plate of curry.
I haven’t linked any recipes here yet, though. There isn’t a tested pineapple chutney online that I’m comfortable pointing you to, so I’m working on developing and testing my own. Check back soon, and this section will fill in once I have a recipe I trust.
Pineapple Jam & Preserves
Pineapple jam captures that tropical flavor in a spreadable form, and the fruit’s natural acid means it sets up nicely with pectin. On its own it’s bright and sunny, but pineapple really comes alive when you pair it with other fruit.
It pairs with all sorts of fruit, too. Apricot, cherry, mango, strawberry, and rhubarb each bring something pineapple lacks on its own, and a few of these lean into cocktail territory with a splash of rum. The combinations below stretch a single pineapple across a bigger batch.
- Pineapple Jam
- Mango Pineapple Jam
- Apricot Pineapple Jam
- Sweet Cherry Jam with Pineapple
- Strawberry Pineapple Jam
- Strawberry Daiquiri Jam
- Rhubarb Pineapple Jam
- Piña Colada Jam
- Carrot Cake Jam (made with crushed pineapple)
Pineapple Pairings & Pie Filling
Pineapple is a team player in the canner, lending its juice and flavor to other fruits and vegetables. A pear and pineapple pie filling gives you a tropical twist on a classic dessert, ready to bake into a pie or spoon over cake.
The most surprising trick is canning zucchini in pineapple juice, which gives you jars that taste remarkably like pineapple tidbits at a fraction of the cost. It’s a clever way to use up a glut of summer squash, and the kids rarely notice the difference.
- Canning Zucchini in Pineapple Juice
- Old Fashioned Pear “Honey” with Crushed Pineapple
- Pear Pineapple Pie Filling
Pineapple may not grow in most of our backyards, but that’s no reason to leave it off the canning shelf. Catch it on sale at its ripest, and you can put up everything from simple jars of fruit to tropical jams, pepper jelly, and salsa that carry a taste of summer straight through winter.
Pick whichever recipe matches your mood, and your pantry will thank you when the snow piles up outside.
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