Grapefruit Proper Preparation

Gladys Rice eating grapefruit. Wonderful photos like this will not be found in this book, but I found her utterly delightful and found this black and white photo to be the cherry on the grapefruit so to speak.

I’m a lover of Grapefruit. And I know enough to know that there is a right way and a wrong way to prepare a grapefruit.  I like to think of it as the fine art of Grapefruiting.  So you can imagine my delight when I found that Good Housekeeping’s Book of Good Meals, 1929, had a section dedicated to proper Grapefruit preparation.  I had to share.  Here are some tips for preparing Grapefruit. 

Grapefruit.    When I cut grapefruit, I do it the lazy way.  With a sharp knife, I cut the grapefruit through the middle, not from point to point (not top to bottom, or belly button to belly button).  This way rather than having orange slices, I have triangles in a cup.  I place my grapefruit in a bowl and I take a smaller sharp knife and cut around each triangle at a bit of an inward angle. I take a teaspoon (if I'm going to be fancy about it I use a grapefruit spoon which is a tiny spoon with a perforated point - but this doesn't normally happen) to scoop out each bite-size triangle.  Then I slurp up all the juice, using the grapefruit as a cup. 

But here is the old fashioned way of preparing grapefruit. To prepare a grapefruit after cutting, remove the seeds with a fork.  Then, with a sharp knife, cut around each section separating the flesh from the partitions.  With scissors, cut down each partition from the edge to the core.  Insert the knife again and separate the core from the fruit shell.  With the scissors or finger tips lift the center, bringing the partitions with it and leaving the fruit sections intact.

How do you prepare your grapefruit?

The following photo is not part of this delectable book, but they are of the era and thought all would enjoy.