Why it works: Pineapple and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,841 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Pineapple Tarts
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the pineapple
Remove the crown from the pineapple, cut it into quarters, and remove the core.
Grate the fruit down to the rind.
Mix the grated fruit with the powdered sugar.
Place the mixture in a cool place for 1 hour.
Cook the filling
In a porcelain kettle, simmer the pineapple and sugar gently until tender.
Bake and serve
Line patty pans with the prepared pastry.
Bake the tart shells at 400°F (200°C).
Fill the baked tart shells with the stewed pineapple.
Serve the tarts hot or cold.
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.
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Pineapple + sugartop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,841 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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 filling, with sweetness and acidity once simmered with sugar.
- Powdered sugar
- Sweetens the fruit and draws out juice, helping it soften into a filling.
- Puff pastry
- Forms the flaky, buttery tart shell that holds the pineapple filling.
The step that matters
Simmer the pineapple gently until tender. Gentle heat softens the fruit and lets its juices thicken with the sugar without scorching. High heat can burn the sugar and leave the pineapple tough or unevenly cooked.
“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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