Skip to main content
Dessert

Pineapple Pudding

A chilled dessert made with tapioca, pineapple, lemon juice, sugar, and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Pineapple Pudding

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 Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tapioca

  1. Soak the tapioca in cold water for three hours.

  2. Drain the water and place the tapioca in a double boiler.

  3. Cover with boiling water and cook until clear.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the lemon juice, sugar, and grated pineapple, then remove from heat.

  2. Stir in the beaten egg whites until well combined.

  3. Serve cold with cream.

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. 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

Tapioca
Thickens the mixture as its starch swells and turns clear when cooked in water.
Lemons
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the sweetness.
Sugar
Sweetens the pudding and balances the tartness of the lemon and pineapple.
Grated pineapple
Provides the main fruit flavour and moisture.
Egg whites
Beaten and folded in, they add lightness and a softer, airier texture.

The step that matters

Cook the tapioca until clear. Tapioca starch must be fully heated in water to swell and thicken. If it is undercooked, the pudding stays cloudy and chalky and has a grainy texture.

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.

More pineapple pudding recipes

Frozen 7Sauce 6Tapioca 5 See all 96 →

You might also like

Lemon CakeLemon Cake228 recipesLemon IceLemon Ice147 recipesPineapple SherbetPineapple Sherbet116 recipesLemon SherbetLemon Sherbet103 recipes