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Pineapple Sponge

A chilled pineapple gelatin dessert made with pineapple, sugar, gelatin, water, and whipped egg whites.

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

  1. Soak the gelatin in 1 cup of water for 2 hours.

  2. Chop the pineapple finely, combine it with the juice, sugar, and remaining water in a saucepan, and simmer for 10 minutes.

Make the mold

  1. Add the soaked gelatin, remove from heat, and let it cool slightly.

  2. Fold in the beaten egg whites until the mixture thickens.

  3. Pour into a mold and refrigerate until set.

Serve

  1. Serve with whipped cream.

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 liquid as it cools, giving the dessert a firm but tender structure.
Egg whites
Whipped foam traps air, making the set dessert light and airy.
Pineapple
Adds fruit flavor, acidity, and moisture to the dessert.
Sugar
Sweetens the pineapple mixture and balances its tartness.

The step that matters

Add the gelatin off the heat and fold in the egg whites while the mixture is only slightly cooled. Gelatin sets as it cools, so it should be added after removing the pan from heat to avoid overcooking it. Folding the egg whites in before the mixture sets keeps the foam intact, so the dessert stays light instead of dense.

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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