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Dessert

Pineapple Est the Shell

A pineapple shell filled with a mixture of chopped pineapple, diced oranges, sugar, and sherry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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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 Est the Shell

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pineapple

  1. Cut off the top of the pineapple and set it aside.

  2. Trim the bottom to make it stand steadily on a plate.

  3. Cut out the inside, leaving a wall ½ inch thick.

  4. Chop the removed pineapple into small bits with a fork.

Make the fruit mixture

  1. Dice the peeled oranges and save all the juice.

  2. Mix the chopped pineapple, diced oranges, and sugar in a bowl.

  3. Transfer the mixture to a glass jar and bury it in ice for 2 hours.

Serve

  1. When ready to serve, fill the pineapple shell with the mixture.

  2. Pour in the sherry, replace the top, and serve immediately.

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  2. Pineapple + sherrytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together228 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  3. Orange + sherrytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together823 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

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

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

  5. Orange + sugartop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,212 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Orange and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,212 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

Pineapple
Forms the edible shell and supplies the main fruit flavor and juicy texture.
Oranges
Add sweet-tart citrus flavor and extra juice to the fruit mixture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and draws out juice from the fruit, softening it slightly.
Sherry
Adds aroma and a warm, fortified wine flavor to the chilled fruit.

The step that matters

Bury the mixture in ice for 2 hours. Keeping the fruit cold slows spoilage and keeps the mixture fresh and crisp until serving, so it should stay chilled throughout.

Swap the orange

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against pineapple, sugar, sherry. 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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