Skip to main content

Sparkling Grapefruit Pie

"I use Indian River pink grapefruit. Serve with whipped cream."

Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Grapefruit and strawberry share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and 21 recipes mention both. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

The recipe

1 9-inch pie
Prep20 min
Cook10 min

Ingredients

Contains: wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Peel the pink grapefruits, removing all white pith, then cut between the membranes to release the segments. Set the segments aside and drain them well over a bowl, saving any juice.

  2. In a small saucepan, whisk the white sugar and cornstarch together. Gradually whisk in the grapefruit juice until smooth.

  3. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, for about 5 minutes until the mixture thickens and turns clear.

  4. Remove from the heat and stir in the strawberry flavored Jell-O until completely dissolved. Let the glaze cool for about 5 minutes.

  5. Arrange the grapefruit segments evenly in the baked pie crust.

  6. Spoon the cooled glaze slowly over the grapefruit, letting it settle between the segments.

  7. Refrigerate the pie for at least 3 hours until the filling is completely set. Slice and serve cold.

By allrecipes. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Grapefruit + strawberrytop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together21 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Sugar + strawberrytop 10% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together3,060 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Grapefruit + sugartop 16% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together309 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the strawberry

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

  1. Orangebetter flavor fit
  2. Lemonbetter flavor fit
  3. Vanillabetter flavor fit
  4. Strawberrythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against grapefruit, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).