Skip to main content
Dessert

Pineapple Pie

A baked pineapple pie with a meringue topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. 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.

Make the filling

  1. In a double boiler, combine egg yolks, milk or water, sugar, butter, flour, grated pineapple, lemon juice, and lemon rind.

  2. Cook until thickened, stirring frequently.

Assemble and bake

  1. Line a pie pan with rich pastry, fill with the pineapple mixture.

  2. Top with meringue made from beaten egg white and sugar.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until the meringue is golden.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + pineappletop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together885 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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

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

  5. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Egg yolks
Thicken the filling as they set during cooking and add richness.
Grated pineapple
Provides the main fruit flavor and moisture for the filling.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps the meringue brown.
Flour
Helps thicken the filling so it holds its body when cut.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the sweet pineapple flavor.
Egg white
Whipped into the meringue, it sets and gives a light, browned topping.

The step that matters

Cook the filling until thickened. Stirring gently in a double boiler keeps the egg yolks from scrambling while the starch and yolks thicken the custard. Undercooked filling stays runny and can soften the crust, while overheating can curdle it.

Swap the pineapple

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Pineapplethe original

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

You might also like

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