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Dessert

Pineapple Pie

A baked pineapple filling topped with meringue in a pie crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pineapple and lemon 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 Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Line a pie plate with the crust.

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, combine the grated pineapple, melted butter, and powdered sugar.

  2. Pour the mixture into the pie crust.

Bake and top

  1. Bake until nearly done.

  2. Meanwhile, make the meringue by beating the egg whites until stiff, then gradually add 3 tablespoons of powdered sugar and the lemon juice.

  3. Spread the meringue over the pie and return it to the oven until the meringue is set.

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 + lemontop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,964 recipes

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

  2. Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Pineapple + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,134 recipes

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

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Pineapple
Provides the main fruit flavor, sweetness, and moisture for the filling.
Egg whites
Whipped into a foam that gives the meringue its structure and then sets in the oven.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the filling and, added gradually, helps stabilize the meringue.
Melted butter
Adds fat and richness, giving the filling a smooth, tender texture.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the pineapple flavor and helps steady the meringue.

The step that matters

Beating the meringue until stiff. Egg whites must be whipped until stiff, with sugar added gradually, to form a stable foam. Underbeaten whites stay runny and may slide off the pie, while overbeaten whites turn grainy and can weep or collapse as they bake.

Swap the pineapple

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

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

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