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Pineapple Sponge

A chilled gelatin dessert made with grated pineapple, sugar, egg white, and gelatin.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Pineapple Sponge

Why it works: Pineapple and sugar 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 Sponge

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Let the grated pineapple and granulated sugar stand for 1 hour.

  2. Dissolve the gelatine in the boiling water.

Combine and set

  1. Add the beaten egg white and dissolved gelatine to the pineapple mixture.

  2. Beat all ingredients together vigorously.

  3. Pour the mixture into a mold and refrigerate for at least 6 hours or overnight.

Serve

  1. Serve on a pudding plate, garnished with whipped cream and a strawberry or red cherry.

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. Pineapple + sugartop 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

Gelatine
Sets the mixture into a firm, sliceable dessert as it cools.
Egg white
Beaten, it traps air and lightens the texture of the set dessert.
Granulated sugar
Sweetens the dish and draws juice from the pineapple, softening its flavour.
Grated pineapple
Provides the main fruit flavour and acidity, and moisture for the set.

The step that matters

Beat all ingredients together vigorously. Vigorous beating incorporates air into the egg white and distributes the gelatine evenly. Without it, the dessert can separate or set unevenly, with dense or streaky layers.

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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