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Dessert

Pineapple Pie

A pie filled with a sweet pineapple custard topped with meringue or whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Pineapple Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. In a saucepan, stir together pineapple juice, sugar, eggs, cornstarch, and butter.

  2. Boil the mixture for about 5 minutes until thickened.

  3. Let the filling cool, then add the pineapple pulp.

Assemble and top

  1. Fill the baked pie crusts with the filling.

  2. Top with meringue or 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.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  3. Pineapple + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,134 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Thicken the custard filling and add richness as they set with heat.
Cornstarch
Thickens the juice and sugar mixture into a sliceable filling as it boils.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and balances the tartness of the pineapple.
Butter
Adds fat for a smoother mouthfeel and a rounder flavor to the filling.
Pineapple juice
Provides the main liquid and pineapple flavor for the filling.

The step that matters

Boil the mixture until thickened. Cornstarch only thickens fully when it reaches a boil, and eggs need that heat to set without scrambling. Stopping early leaves a runny filling, while overcooking can break down the starch and thin it again.

Swap the pineapple

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Strawberryfits better
  3. Raspberryfits better
  4. Pineapplethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, butter, 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.

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