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Pineapple Sherbet

A frozen pineapple dessert made with sugar, water, egg white, and citric acid.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Pineapple Sherbet

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 Sherbet

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Press the pineapple through a fine sieve.

  2. Add the sugar and water to the pineapple juice.

  3. Beat the egg white until frothy.

  4. Mix the frothy egg white into the pineapple mixture.

  5. Add the citric acid solution.

Freeze

  1. Strain the mixture into a freezer.

  2. Freeze according to your freezer's instructions.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. 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

Sugar
Provides sweetness and softens the texture of the frozen sherbet.
Egg white
Beaten to a froth, it adds air and a lighter, smoother body.
Citric acid solution
Adds tartness that balances the sweetness of the sugar and pineapple.
Pineapple
Supplies the main flavor and juice that forms the base of the sherbet.

The step that matters

Mix the frothy egg white into the pineapple mixture. Egg white only traps air well when it is beaten until frothy; if it is deflated or added unevenly, the sherbet will be denser and less light in texture.

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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