Hi, my name is Heather and I’m going to tell you how to cut a grapefruit so you can eat it without a grapefruit spoon.
Hi Heather.
Growing up we always had a side of grapefruit with breakfast, which for me was usually a bagel with butter and maybe some honey. Maybe. My tastes were clearly defined then. But the thing is we always had grapefruit spoons to eat it with! Granted my mom always cut it for us anyway…because she loves us and that’s what moms do…but we ate our grapefruit in sleepy silence just about every morning.
These days I chat it up on here with you guys while I wake up and then when Nate gets up he gets bombarded with ideas and thoughts and scheduling the day. Why do I do it? Who knows…it’s just how I roll. I try to justify it with “he knew that before we got married” but the reality is that we’ve flip-flopped our morning roles since then. I used to fight the alarm and he would be the one to have to drag me out of bed in the morning.
Now he’s the one that I have to drag out of bed whilst I jump merrily (OK not so merrily) from the covers around 5am to blog and take care of personal stuff on the computer. I don’t know how that changed and neither does he. I suppose some things have to stay a mystery in marriage, right?
OK, enough of that – here’s how I like to cut my grapefruit so that I can eat it with our normal smooth spoons. And just how I like to eat my grapefruit in general. First you cut it in half through the middle of the fruit, not from top to bottom. Through the middle with expose all of the segments – which is what you want!
Place the halves in bowls so that you have a more stable cutting surface for the rest. Take your paring knife and cut right in front of the white pith all the way around the outside of the segments – you’ll be using a sawing motion and moving at about a 45 degree angle toward the bottom of the bowl.
Then you’ll see each one of the segments. Cut straight down on either side of the segment to release the segment from the membranes. Do this all the way around until you reach the beginning segment. I know, I know, it sounds super tedious but I promise it’s not…especially in grapefruit season when the fruit is practically bursting to get out of there!
Now here’s where a lot of people differ…I like my grapefruit with a sprinkling of about 1-2 tsp of sugar on top and then dig in. I’ve heard of others using honey, but I just can’t jump on that train – I like the crunch of the sugar on top! Still others I’ve heard will use brown sugar, maple syrup, or salt. But y’all – I’m telling you, use the sugar. There’s life there!
Your turn – what’s your grapefruit topping of choice? Or are you a purist who eats it as-is? AND one more thing – do you drink the juice? I never could but now that I’m older and have tried a greyhound (grapefruit juice and vodka) I drink the juice and pretend it’s a pre-work cocktail 🙂
My mom used to peel the grapefruit like an orange and then use a knife to cut the segments out of their casings. I was spoiled. 🙂 Now I cut it in half and scoop it out with a butter knife. I like it better than a grapefruit spoon because it’s the perfect width. And I always drink the juice!
Brown sugar, under the broiler. Mmm…….
This is exactly how I eat my grapefruits! When I’m home for the holidays, my dad cuts it up for me and it makes me so happy!
I love it with salt on top!
Ripe with salt.. Perfect on a summer day 🙂
Warm with brown sugar!!
I actually like grapefruit plain or with honey on top…the combo is off the charts!
I love it with just plain sugar on top!
I love grapefruit hot with some sugar on top– so good!!
I also grew up with grapefruits – had one at least once a week. Never heard or a grapefruit spoon before i got here. I grew up with eating a grapefruit with a regular spoon as is. Nobody cut it for me :). So to this day i eat it as is with a regular spoon and then i drink the juice 🙂
I peel them like an orange and eat them plain….I LOVE grapefruit.
I love grapefruit and eat them plain. I like cutting up the segments too and then eating with a grapefruit spoon! Haven’t tried sugar or anything on it yet, I’m a purist!
Hey Heather,
I have never had a grapefruit spoon, but I have a grapefruit knife and it was what we used growing up. It is a curved knife serated on both sides. It is a one trick pony I have never uesd it for anything else, but it allows me to also eat my grapefruit with a smooth spoon.
Also, white sugar sprinkled on top all the way!
Gotta have the sugar on top and it’s got to be a Ruby Red. I like those MUCH better than the yellow ones.
We eat our grapefruit (and cut it) the same way 🙂 I used to cover the entire thing in sugar but now I’m a little more reserved. 😉
this will sound crazy, but as sweet as my teeth are… i never do sugar when eating it. i loooove grapefruit and have eaten them plain since i was little. they quench my thirst!