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Dessert

Pineapple Sherbet

A frozen dessert made with pineapple, sugar, orange juice, milk, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Pineapple Sherbet

Why it works: Pineapple and orange are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,664 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓

Pineapple Sherbet

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Add 1 cup of sugar to the grated pineapple.

  2. Mix the remaining 1 cup of sugar with the milk and partially freeze.

Freeze

  1. Add the pineapple and orange juice to the partially frozen mixture.

  2. Complete the freezing process.

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. Pineapple + orangetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,664 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

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

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

  3. Pineapple + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together885 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  4. Orange + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,696 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Adds sweetness and softens the texture by lowering the freezing point.
Milk
Forms the creamy base of the sherbet.
Cream
Adds richness and a smoother, fuller mouthfeel.
Grated pineapple
Provides the main fruit flavor and some acidity.
Orange juice
Adds bright citrus acidity and flavor.

The step that matters

Add the pineapple and orange juice to the partially frozen mixture.. The acidic juice can curdle milk if it is added to a warm or unfrozen dairy base. Adding it once the mixture is partly frozen keeps it cold and helps the sherbet stay smooth.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Strawberryfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pineapple, sugar, milk, 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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