Skip to main content
Dessert

Pineapple Pte

A baked pie with pineapple, eggs, cornstarch, butter, sugar, and meringue topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Pineapple and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,134 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Pineapple Pte

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Heat the juice from the pineapple.

  2. In a bowl, mix the eggs, cornstarch, butter, and sugar.

  3. Cut the pineapple into small pieces and add it last to the mixture.

Bake and assemble

  1. Bake a pie crust until golden brown.

  2. Fill the baked crust with the pineapple mixture.

  3. Make a meringue by whipping the egg whites with sugar and baking powder.

  4. Spread the meringue over the filled pie.

  5. Optionally, serve with whipped cream on top.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 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

Eggs
Thicken the filling as they set and add richness to the custard.
Cornstarch
Thickens the juice and filling so it holds its shape when sliced.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother, tender texture in the filling.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps stabilise the whipped meringue.
Baking powder
Adds lift to the meringue so it stays light and airy.

The step that matters

Whipping the meringue. Egg whites must be whipped until they form stiff peaks, and any trace of fat or yolk will stop them from whipping well. Sugar added gradually helps stabilise the foam so it holds its shape while baking.

Swap the pineapple

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Lemonfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Pineapplethe original

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

You might also like

Pineapple SherbetPineapple Sherbet116 recipesPineapple PuddingPineapple Pudding72 recipesPineapple CreamPineapple Cream58 recipesPineapple JellyPineapple Jelly39 recipes