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Dessert

Beryl Cisler

A pineapple dessert baked with brown sugar, butter, flour, eggs, and lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Paidar, Marie, Mrs., [from old catalog] comp · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Beryl Cisler

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pineapple

  1. Drain one can of pineapple and cut into one-half inch cubes.

  2. Cook the pineapple cubes in an iron skillet with one and one-half cups brown sugar and one-fourth pound butter until the butter melts.

  3. Set aside to cool.

Make the batter

  1. Beat two yolks and add a scant cup of granulated sugar.

  2. Alternately add one cup sifted flour with one heaping teaspoon baking powder, and one-half cup warm water.

  3. Add one teaspoonful lemon juice and one teaspoon vanilla.

  4. Fold in the beaten whites of two eggs.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the batter over the pineapple but do not stir.

  2. Bake in the skillet in a moderate oven.

  3. When cool, turn out onto a large chopping plate and cover with sweetened whipped cream.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

708Calories
20 gProtein
18 gFat
112 gCarbs

Counts 6 of 7 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Vanilla1 tsp extract (4ml)12
Waternot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Paidar, Marie, Mrs., [from old catalog] comp. 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. See the original page.

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 + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + vanillatop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,050 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Lemon + vanillatop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,961 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Pineapple (in the method)
Adds fruit acidity and moisture that bakes into the sugar-butter base.
Brown sugar
Sweetens and caramelizes with the butter and pineapple to form a syrupy base.
Butter
Adds fat and richness and helps the sugar form a smooth syrup with the fruit.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake batter together as it bakes.
Eggs
Yolks enrich and bind the batter, while beaten whites add air for a lighter crumb.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking, helping the batter rise and become light.

The step that matters

Pour the batter over the pineapple but do not stir.. Leaving the batter unmixed keeps the fruit and syrup layer separate beneath it. The syrup caramelizes at the bottom while the batter bakes on top, so stirring would blend the layers and weaken the result.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Blueberryfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, flour, butter, vanilla, 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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