How to Dehydrate Canned Pineapple

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In this article, I dehydrate a #10 can of pineapple. This #10 can of pineapple in 100% juice weighed 6 lbs and 10 ounces, including the juice.

Dehydrating Canned Pineapple Step 1: Drain the Juice from the Pineapple

The first step in dehydrating canned pineapple is to drain the juice

Before putting the pineapple into the dehydrator, I drained and saved all the juice. There was about 5 cups of juice. The juice was kind of a treat for us because we don’t often buy juice.

After draining the juice, I was pleased to see that there was about 9 cups of pineapple. I felt that the price that I paid ($6.55 at Walmart) was a good deal for 5 cups of juice and 9 cups of pineapple.

There are about 9 cups of pineapple in a #10 can of pineapple

One big advantage of buying the canned pineapple instead of fresh is that the pineapple was already prepared. While fresh pineapple is great, it was nice to not have to deal with cutting the pineapple. This made this an easy project.

Step 2: Place the Drained Pineapple on Dehydrator Trays

A mesh liner on dehydrator trays helps keep the pineapple from sticking. It also keeps it from falling through the trays as it shrinks in the dehydration process.

Naturally, after draining the pineapple, I put all of the pineapple on dehydrator trays. I used the mesh liners on the trays so that the pineapple would be less likely to stick on the trays. Another plus of using the mesh liners is that as the pineapple dehydrates, it shrinks in size so much, that without the mesh liners, the pineapple could fall through the holes in the trays.

I ended up with 5 full trays of pineapple. While the trays were full, for the most part the pineapple chunks were spread out well enough that they weren’t touching, nor overlapping. It’s important to spread out the pineapple when dehydrating because even when spread out, it has so much moisture, it takes a long time to dehydrate.

Step 3: Dehydrate the Canned Pineapple at 125 Degrees Fahrenheit

I set my dehydrator at 125 degrees Fahrenheit.

After 8 Hours in the Dehydrator

After 8 hours in the dehydrator, the pineapple was starting to dry, but was still very moist. At this time, it was close to bedtime, so I let the dehydrator run overnight.

After 19 Hours in the Dehydrator

After 19 hours in the dehydrator, the pineapple was much dryer than before, but it was still quite moist, and very flexible.

After 30 Hours in the Dehydrator

This is what the pineapple looked like after 30 hours. It was likely dry at least a couple of hours before that.

When it was time to go to bed (again), the pineapple still wasn’t ready, so I again let it run overnight.

At this point they were dry, but still slightly flexible. This flexibility was likely due to the high sugar content and wouldn’t have changed with more drying.

Note that the pineapple probably would have been dried complete after about 24 – 28 hours in the dehydrator. The additional time in the dehydrator was due to them running while I was in bed.

Testing Dehydrated Pineapple for Proper Dryness

As I dropped the pineapple into the jars, it made a “clinking” sound.

In addition to being dry to the touch, as I dropped the pineapple into the jar, they made a “clinking” sound. This was a clearly different sound than the wet pineapple would make if dropped into the jar.

Yield of Dehydrated Pineapple Compared to Canned Pineapple

I ended up with about 3 1/2 cups of dehydrated pineapple.

As I mentioned earlier, after the juice was drained from the pineapple, I was left with 9 cups of pineapple chunks. After dehydrating, I had roughly 3.5 cups of pineapple. So the pineapple reduced down approximately 2/3. I love this from a food storage perspective, it took very little space to store the pineapple.

Dehydrated Pineapple Taste

The dehydrated pineapple tasted very sweet – like candy. My mom in particular is supposed to avoid sweets, and dehydrated fruit is a good alternative.

Please do know that dehydrated fruit contains a lot of sugar, so you do need to be careful with the amount you eat. Having said that, it contains nutrients and other good things such as fiber that are missing in candy, ice-cream, and other indulgences. But if you need to watch your sugar intake, consider dehydrated pineapple to be a candy alternative, and don’t consume it in large quantities.

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Here are some of my favorite dehydrating tools

Thank you for reading this article. I hope you found it helpful as you strive to stock your pantry with delicious home-dehydrated food! Here are some tools that I use that I’m hoping you’ll also find helpful. These are affiliate links, so if you do decide to use any of them, I’ll earn a commission. Please know that these are the tools that I recommend and believe in 100%!

The Nesco FD-75A Snackmaster Pro Food Dehydrator was my first dehydrator, and still one of my favorites. I actually have two of them! If I was only going to buy one dehydrator and was on a strict budget, this would be it. I love it because it’s very reasonably priced, and is expandable up to 12 trays. I recommend starting with the basic system that comes with 5 trays. Then expand by buying additional trays, fruit leather sheets, and mesh screens.

The Cosori Premium Dehydrator is my most recent dehydrator purchase. In many respects, it’s superior to the Nesco since it is constructed with stainless steel, which is always a winner. I love the ease of use, and how precise it is when it comes to setting the temperature. It’s also versatile in that you can remove some of the racks. This makes it possible to use it for more than just dehydrating. As an example, you can use the Cosori dehydrator to make yogurt, something you definitely can’t do with any of the stackable dehydrators.

Nesco FD-1018A Gardenmaster Pro Food Dehydrator – I’ve had my eye on this dehydrator for a LONG time. I don’t have space for another dehydrator, so I’m just waiting for one of my dehydrators to die so I can buy this one! What I really love about this dehydrator is that it expands to up to 30 (yes, 30!) trays. At 1,000 watts, it’s more powerful than the two dehydrators listed above. If you only have the means to buy one dehydrator, and have limited space to dehydrate, I recommend this one since you can dehydrate a huge amount of food at a time.

The FoodSaver Vacuum Sealing Machine is a great way to preserve the food you’ve dehydrated. The machine I use is no longer available. I chose this one because it’s a great price and includes a port that makes it possible to use the accessory kit linked to below. Since I store all my dehydrated food in mason jars, the jar sealer attachments are a must. But with this device, you can also use food storage bags if you’re short on mason jars, or prefer to seal you dehydrated food in bags.

The FoodSaver Handheld Cordless Food Vacuum Sealer is a great option for those with limited space. I keep mine charged up in my kitchen, so I can easily reseal jars every time I use some of my dehydrated food. While I still love my larger FoodSaver, from a convenience perspective, this one can’t be beat.

The FoodSaver Accessory Kit is a must if, like me, you store dehydrated food in mason jars. You can use this kit with either of the vacuum sealers linked to above. If you can’t get the one I linked to on Amazon, check out this selection of options available on Walmart.