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Dessert

Pineapple Sherbet

A chilled pineapple dessert made with water, sugar, cornstarch, shredded pineapple, citrus juice, and folded egg whites.

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

Why it works: Pineapple and lime match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 469 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Pineapple Sherbet

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Boil water and sugar together for 20 minutes.

  2. Dissolve cornstarch in a little cold water and add it to the mixture.

Finish the sorbet

  1. Once cool, stir in the shredded pineapple and lime or lemon juice.

  2. When half frozen, fold in the beaten egg whites.

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 + limetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together469 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

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

  3. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  4. Pineapple + eggtop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,075 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + limetop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,332 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

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 sorbet softer when frozen.
Cornstarch
Thickens the syrup, giving the sorbet a smoother body.
Shredded pineapple
Supplies the main fruit flavor and pulp.
Lime or lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and balances the sugar.
Egg whites
Whipped, they trap air, adding lightness to the frozen texture.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whipped whites hold air, which gives the sorbet lightness. Fold them in gently, and only when the mixture is half frozen. Stirring hard or adding them to a mix that is too liquid or too firm can deflate them or leave streaks.

Swap the lime

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Bananafits better
  4. Limethe original

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