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Dessert

Pineapple Custard

A custard made with eggs, butter, sugar, water, corn starch, and grated pineapple.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and corn are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,345 recipes. Both carry 2,3-pentanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Pineapple Custard

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. In a saucepan, combine water, sugar, butter, and corn starch.

  2. Cook over medium heat until thick.

  3. Remove from heat and stir in beaten egg yolks until thickened.

  4. Add grated pineapple and mix well.

Fill the crust

  1. Pour into a pre-baked crust.

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 + corntop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,345 recipes

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

  2. Pineapple + corntop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together150 recipes

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

  3. Butter + pineappletop 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. Butter + sugartop 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
Yolks thicken the custard as they set and add richness and a smooth texture.
Corn starch
Swells when heated and thickens the liquid into a stable, sliceable custard.
Butter
Adds fat for a rich mouthfeel and a silky texture in the finished filling.
Sugar
Provides sweetness and helps balance the tartness of the pineapple.
Grated pineapple
Contributes fruity acidity and aroma that cut through the richness of the custard.

The step that matters

Stirring in the egg yolks off the heat. Egg yolks set at moderate temperatures and can scramble or curdle if the hot mixture is too hot or unstirred. Stir steadily as they go in to keep the custard smooth.

Swap the pineapple

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Pineapplethe original

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