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Dessert

Pineapple Pie

A baked pie with grated pineapple, egg yolks, butter, sugar, milk, and a meringue topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Pineapple Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Empty the can of grated pineapple into a dish.

  3. Beat the yolks of two eggs and mix with 1 teaspoon of butter until smooth.

  4. Stir in 1 cup of sugar and 1 cup of milk, then add the grated pineapple.

Bake and top with meringue

  1. Pour the mixture into an open pie crust and bake until set.

  2. Beat the egg white until stiff, then gradually add 1 tablespoon of powdered sugar.

  3. Spread the meringue over the pie and return to the oven to brown lightly.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Pineapple + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together885 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  3. Pineapple + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,134 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Thicken the filling as they set, giving it a rich, custard-like body.
Egg white
Whipped with powdered sugar to form a stiff meringue that topping that browns on the pie.
Grated pineapple
Provides the main fruit flavor and moisture in the filling.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps it set smoothly.
Milk
Adds liquid and richness that combine with the yolks to form a custard.

The step that matters

Baking the filling until set. Egg yolks thicken as they heat, but overbaking can curdle or weep the custard, while underbaking leaves it runny. Watching for a set center matters.

Swap the pineapple

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Pineapplethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, sugar, milk. 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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