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Pineapple Sherbet

A chilled pineapple dessert made with water, sugar, lemon juice, pineapple, egg white, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Pineapple Sherbet

Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Pineapple Sherbet

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Boil water and sugar for 10 minutes.

  2. Let the mixture cool.

Freeze and finish

  1. Add lemon juice and grated pineapple.

  2. Pour into a freezer.

  3. When partly frozen, stir in beaten egg white and cream.

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

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

  2. Lemon + pineappletop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,964 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  4. Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  5. Sugar + pineappletop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,841 recipes

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

Sugar and lemon 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

Sugar
Adds sweetness and keeps the frozen sherbet softer and scoopable.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the fruit flavor.
Grated pineapple
Provides the main fruit flavor and aroma.
Egg white
Beaten, it traps air, giving a lighter, fluffier texture.
Cream
Adds fat for richness and a smoother, creamier mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Stir in the egg white and cream when partly frozen. A partly frozen base is slushy enough to blend the beaten egg white and cream in evenly. If it is frozen solid, these additions stay in lumps and the sherbet turns dense and icy.

Swap the pineapple

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raspberryfits better
  3. Orangefits better
  4. Pineapplethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, lemon, egg, 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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