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Dessert

Pineapple Ice

A frozen dessert made with pineapple, gelatin, sugar, water, lemon juice, and egg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and gelatin are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,778 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Pineapple Ice

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Make a syrup with sugar and water.

  2. Let the syrup cool.

Mix and freeze

  1. Add lemon juice, shredded pineapple, and gelatin dissolved in cold water.

  2. Add enough clear water to make 1 gallon.

  3. When nearly frozen, stir in the beaten egg until frothy.

  4. Freeze hard.

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 + gelatintop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,778 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  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. Pineapple + gelatintop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together282 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

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

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

Sugar
Sweetens the ice and lowers its freezing point so it stays soft rather than rock-hard.
Gelatin
Helps set a smooth texture and limits large ice crystals as the mixture freezes.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that balances the sweetness and brightens the pineapple flavor.
Shredded pineapple
Provides the main fruit flavor and some body to the ice.
Egg
Beaten in near the end of freezing, it adds air and a light, frothy texture.

The step that matters

Stir in the beaten egg when nearly frozen. If the mixture is still liquid, the egg will not hold its froth and will sink. If it is frozen solid, it cannot be stirred in evenly. Timing it while the mixture is slushy lets the egg blend in and trap air, giving a lighter texture.

Swap the pineapple

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Orangefits better
  3. Raspberryfits about as well
  4. Pineapplethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, lemon, gelatin, 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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