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Dessert

Pine-apple Jelly

A gelatinous dessert made from pineapple, sugar, egg white, lemon juice, and gelatin.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pineapple and lemon 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 ↓

Pine-apple Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the pineapple into fine pieces.

  2. Soak the gelatin in cold water for 2 hours.

Make the jelly

  1. Combine the pineapple with boiling water in a pot and simmer gently for 20 minutes.

  2. Add the soaked gelatin, sugar, lemon juice, and the egg white and shell to the boiling pineapple mixture.

  3. Allow to boil once, then reduce heat and keep hot for 20 minutes without boiling.

Strain and set

  1. Strain the mixture through a napkin, pour into molds, and refrigerate to harden.

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

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

  2. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  3. Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

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

  4. Pineapple + sugartop 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).

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
Provides the gel structure that lets the jelly set firm when chilled.
Egg white and shell
Clarifies the liquid, collecting particles so the jelly strains clear.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps give the jelly a smooth, tender body.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the pineapple flavour and balances the sweetness.
Pineapple
Supplies the main flavour and liquid that forms the body of the jelly.

The step that matters

Keep hot without boiling. Boiling the gelatin mixture again after it has been added can weaken its setting power and cloud the jelly, so it should only be held just below a boil.

Swap the pineapple

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

  1. Orangefits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Limefits better
  4. Pineapplethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, 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.

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