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Flan of Pineapple

A pineapple custard flan baked with a meringue topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Pineapple and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,841 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Flan of Pineapple

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 350°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the base

  1. Prepare the flan base as for Apple Flan.

  2. Bake the flan base as for Apple Flan.

Make the custard

  1. Cut the pineapple into dice and remove all specks.

  2. Strain the pineapple syrup and place ½ cup in a saucepan with 2 teaspoons of sugar.

  3. Bring the syrup to a boil, then simmer for 3-4 minutes.

  4. Let the syrup cool slightly, then add the yolks of the eggs and cook gently until thickened, stirring constantly.

Bake and serve

  1. Place the diced pineapple in the prepared flan base, cover with the custard, and spread the stiffly whipped egg whites on top.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C) until the meringue hardens and browns slightly.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Pineapple + sugartop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,841 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  2. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Pineapple + eggtop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Yolks thicken the custard and whipped whites form the meringue topping.
Preserved pineapple
Provides the sweet, acidic fruit flavour and the diced fruit layer.
Castor sugar
Sweetens the syrup and helps the meringue whites stay stable and brown.
Short crust pastry
Forms the crisp, baked base that holds the filling.

The step that matters

Cook the custard gently while stirring. Egg yolks thicken through gentle heat; if the custard gets too hot or is not stirred, the yolks can scramble and turn grainy instead of smooth and thick.

Swap the pineapple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Lemonfits better
  4. Pineapplethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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