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Pineapple and Cucumber Aspic

A chilled gelatin dish of pineapple, cucumber, and lemon, served on lettuce with mayonnaise.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,409 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Pineapple and Cucumber Aspic

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Juice the lemons and add the juice to the cold water.

  2. Dice the pineapple and peel and cut up the cucumbers; add them to the lemon juice and water.

  3. Sweeten the mixture with pineapple juice to taste.

Set the aspic

  1. Dissolve the gelatine in a little cold water and melt it over hot water, then add it to the mixture.

  2. Add a few drops of green vegetable coloring if desired.

  3. Pour the mixture into a mold and let it congeal.

Serve

  1. Serve on lettuce with mayonnaise.

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. Cucumber + lettucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,409 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Lemon + lettucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,559 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  3. Lemon + cucumbertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Pineapple + lettucetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together271 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  5. Pineapple + cucumbertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together151 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 mixture into a firm, sliceable aspic as it congeals.
Lemons
Add acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the sweetness of the pineapple.
Pineapple
Adds sweetness and fruity flavour to the aspic.
Cucumbers
Add fresh, mild flavour and a crisp texture to the set aspic.

The step that matters

Dissolve the gelatine fully before adding it to the mixture. Gelatine only sets properly when fully dissolved. Undissolved granules leave gritty, weak patches, so it should be melted gently over hot water and stirred into the mixture evenly.

Swap the pineapple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lemon, cucumber, lettuce):

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Cherryfits better
  4. Pineapplethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, cucumber, lettuce. 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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