Do I pull the leaves from a pineapple to tell if it is ripe?

Do I pull the leaves from a pineapple to tell if it is ripe? B. Kelly

I once got told off by a woman in an eastern suburbs greengrocer for picking up a pineapple and sniffing its bottom. "I can't buy that after you've sniffed it," she sneered. "You won't have to," I replied, putting it in my basket. "This one is ripe." Pineapples take starch up through the stem and convert this to sugar. This ripening starts at the bottom and works its way to the top. Once harvested the supply of starch is halted and the pineapple will ripen no further. Really ripe pineapples don't travel well, as they are soft and damage easily. If you want really ripe pineapples you need to head to our tropics or pay top dollar for a mollycoddled pineapple at a specialty greengrocer. Look for a gold, not green, colour in your pineapple and give its bottom a good sniff. If ripe you should get a noseful of sweet tropical aromas. A leaf easily pulled from a pineapple indicates a loose leaf and not much more.

I live alone and my butter goes rancid in the fridge before I get to use it all. N. Renton

Rancid butter is not going to kill you but it does taste unpleasant. You can portion a 250-gram block of butter into five 50-gram pieces, cover in plastic wrap and freeze. You can freeze the entire block and cut off as much as you need for baking using a sharp knife. If you are buttering a slice of bread, grate as much butter as you need onto the bread and continue making the sandwich. You can grate frozen butter over gratins, baked gnocchi etc.

Can you freeze vacuum-packed meat? C. French

Yes. The complete lack of air stops the meat from suffering freezer burn.

Letters, corrections and apologies.

A few weeks back M. De Saint-Ferjeux wrote, "Why can't one buy preserving wax any more?" Several of you wrote in with stories about talking to the manager of your local IGA who was able to get preserving wax in stock for you. A. Randell wrote from Rome where he worked in global food safety organisations. He pointed out that paraffin (preserving wax) should not be used "in or on food because it demonstrates toxicological effects at all doses" according to the joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives. Oh dear.

The great chookgate debate continues. Recently we warned that Aussie chooks were covered in dangerous bugs like salmonella and campylobacter and that washing only spread the bugs around the kitchen. I was rebuked by several readers for not taking the issue seriously enough. One reader, B. Chute, wrote, "I don't want to risk germ contamination from chickens if I wash them in the kitchen. But I do like a clear chicken soup and I don't like the blood and muck inside the birds. I hang my chicken from the clothes line using a butcher's hook and spray them inside and out using the rosette nozzle on the Nylex garden spray, let it drip dry on the lawn, then cook it straight away."

Send your vexing culinary conundrums to brainfood@richardcornish.com.au or tweet to @Foodcornish.