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Dessert

Pineapple Tapioca

A sweet dessert made with tapioca, pineapple, lemon juice, sugar, and egg whites, chilled and served with cream or custard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and pineapple are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,964 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Pineapple Tapioca

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the tapioca overnight in plenty of water.

  2. Drain the soaked tapioca.

Cook

  1. Add cold water, lemon juice, and juice from the can of pineapple.

  2. Cook in a double boiler until clear.

  3. Add sugar.

  4. Add chopped pineapple.

  5. Fold in beaten egg whites.

Chill and serve

  1. Chill the mixture.

  2. Serve with cream or custard.

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

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

  2. Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Lemon and sugar 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

Pearl tapioca
Starch that thickens as it cooks and turns the mixture clear and gel-like.
Egg whites
Beaten in at the end to add lightness and a foamy, airy texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the pudding and softens its flavour against the tart lemon.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the sweetness.
Pineapple
Provides fruit flavour and moisture to the pudding.

The step that matters

Cook in a double boiler until clear. Tapioca starch needs gentle, even heat to swell fully and turn clear. Direct high heat can scorch the bottom or leave the starch grainy and unevenly thickened.

Swap the pineapple

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, sugar, 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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