Skip to main content
Dessert

Barberry Cream

A chilled gelatin dessert made with grated pineapple, sugar, gelatin, and whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Gelatin and cream match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,628 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

Barberry Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Dissolve the gelatin in a small amount of water.

  2. In a bowl, combine the grated pineapple and sugar.

  3. Stir in the dissolved gelatin.

Cool and set

  1. Set the mixture on ice to cool.

  2. Once cooled, gently fold in the whipped cream.

  3. Pour into a mold and refrigerate until set.

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. Gelatin + creamtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,628 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  2. Sugar + gelatintop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,778 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Pineapple + gelatintop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together282 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Pineapple + sugartop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,841 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

Gelatin
Sets the mixture into a firm, sliceable texture as it cools.
Whipped cream
Adds fat and air, giving a light, creamy texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the tartness of the pineapple.
Grated pineapple
Provides the main fruit flavour and moisture.

The step that matters

Gently fold in the whipped cream after cooling. Whipped cream holds its air only while it is cold and undisturbed. Folding it into a warm mixture melts the fat and deflates the foam, and the gelatin begins to set at cool temperatures, so the cream should be added gently once the mixture has cooled but is not yet firm.

Swap the pineapple

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Strawberryfits better
  3. Raspberryfits about as well
  4. Pineapplethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, gelatin, cream. 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.

More pineapple cream recipes

Cheese Salad 4Ice 4Pie 4Pudding 4 See all 70 →

You might also like

Pineapple SherbetPineapple Sherbet116 recipesPineapple PuddingPineapple Pudding72 recipesPineapple JellyPineapple Jelly39 recipesPineapple Sponge CakePineapple Sponge Cake38 recipes