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Pineapple Puffs

A candied pineapple sweet made by combining sugar syrup, beaten egg whites, and pineapple.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and pineapple 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 ↓

Pineapple Puffs

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 252°F (122°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the syrup

  1. Combine sugar, glucose, and water in a kettle over heat, and stir until boiling.

  2. Wash down the sides of the kettle with a damp cloth.

  3. Cook until the thermometer reads 252°F (122°C).

  4. Once the syrup reaches 252°F, remove the kettle from heat.

  5. Rub the candy against the sides of the pan until it looks cloudy with white streaks.

Combine with egg whites

  1. While cooking, beat the egg whites until stiff.

  2. Slowly pour half of the syrup into the egg whites while stirring continuously.

  3. Pour the egg mixture back into the kettle with the remaining syrup, stirring constantly.

  4. Continue mixing quickly to prevent the syrup from hardening.

  5. When the mixture begins to stiffen, add essence of pineapple and chopped candied pineapple.

Drop and set

  1. Drop spoonfuls onto wax paper or buttered plates using a large spoon and fork.

  2. Allow to harden for a short time.

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. Sugar + pineappletop 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. Egg + pineappletop 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

Sugar
Forms the sweet crystalline candy base that sets into a firm, brittle puff.
Glucose
Interferes with sugar crystallization, keeping the candy smooth rather than grainy.
Egg whites
Whipped into a foam that gives the puffs their light, airy structure.

The step that matters

Rub the candy against the sides of the pan until cloudy. Agitating the syrup on the pan sides seeds controlled sugar crystals, which turns the mixture opaque and white. Stopping at the right point matters, because the syrup must then be worked quickly before it hardens.

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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