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Dessert

Pineapple Pie

A baked pie with pineapple, eggs, butter, sugar, milk, and 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.

  4. Mix the beaten yolks with 1 teaspoon of butter and 1 cup of sugar until smooth.

  5. Stir in 1 cup of milk and the grated pineapple.

  6. Pour the mixture into an open pie crust.

Bake and top with meringue

  1. Bake in the preheated oven until set.

  2. Beat the egg white until stiff.

  3. Gradually add 1 tablespoon of powdered sugar to the beaten egg white.

  4. Spread the meringue over the pie.

  5. Return the pie 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 into meringue, it forms a light topping that browns in the oven.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps keep the yolks smooth.
Milk
Adds moisture and liquid that sets with the yolks into a custard.
Grated pineapple
Provides the main fruit flavour and moisture to the filling.
Powdered sugar
Dissolves easily into the beaten white, stabilising the meringue.

The step that matters

Beating the egg white until stiff. Egg white must be whipped to stiff peaks to trap air for a light meringue. Adding the sugar gradually keeps the foam stable, so the topping holds its shape and browns evenly.

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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