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Dessert

Pineapple Mousse

A chilled dessert made with gelatin, pineapple, eggs, lemon, sugar, and whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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 Mousse

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the gelatine

  1. Soften the gelatine in cold water.

  2. Beat the egg whites until stiff and set aside.

  3. In a double boiler, combine gelatine, boiling water, and sugar; stir until dissolved.

  4. Remove from heat and add lemon juice.

Make the mousse

  1. Gradually beat the drained pineapple into the egg yolks, then stir in the gelatine mixture.

  2. Set the bowl in a pan of ice water and gently fold in the egg whites.

  3. When the mixture begins to thicken, fold in the whipped cream and beat for a few minutes.

Freeze

  1. Transfer to a freezer and pack in salt and ice for 4 hours.

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. 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

Gelatine
Sets the mixture so the mousse holds its shape when chilled.
Egg whites
Beaten to stiff peaks, they add airy lightness to the mousse.
Egg yolks
Enrich the mixture and add richness and body to the mousse.
Whipped cream
Adds fat and softness, giving the mousse a creamy, light texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the mousse and helps balance the tartness of the lemon.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the sweetness.

The step that matters

Fold in the egg whites gently. Whipped egg whites hold air that gives the mousse its lightness. Stirring or beating them vigorously deflates the foam, and folding while the mixture is cold and only just thickening keeps the air trapped.

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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