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Pineapple Jelly

A gelatin dessert made with pineapple pieces, pineapple juice, and lemon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Pineapple Jelly

Why it works: Gelatin and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,778 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Pineapple Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Dissolve the gelatin

  1. Soak the gelatin in cold water.

  2. In a pot, combine pineapple juice, sugar, and cold water, and bring to a boil.

  3. Pour the boiling mixture over the soaked gelatin and stir until dissolved.

Set the jelly

  1. Let the mixture cool slightly, then add the pineapple pieces before it begins to set.

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. Gelatin + sugartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,778 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Pineapple + lemontop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,964 recipes

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

  3. Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  4. Pineapple + gelatintop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together282 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

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

Lemon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Gelatin
Forms the network that sets the liquid into a firm, sliceable jelly.
Pineapple juice
Provides the main liquid and fruit flavor of the jelly.
Pineapple
Adds fruit flavor and a chewy bite in the set jelly.

The step that matters

Add the pineapple before the jelly begins to set. Fresh pineapple contains bromelain, an enzyme that breaks down gelatin and stops it setting. Adding the pieces only after the mixture has cooled slightly, and before it starts to set, keeps them suspended evenly throughout.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Mangofits better
  3. Strawberryfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pineapple, gelatin, 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.

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