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Dessert

Pineapple Snow

A chilled dessert of stewed pineapple layered with a meringue-like snow and served with whipped cream or custard.

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 ↓

Pineapple Snow

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pineapple

  1. Dice the pineapple and stew it in its juice until tender, sweetening to taste.

Make the jelly

  1. Soak the gelatine in the cold water for about 30 minutes.

  2. Pour the soaked gelatine into the boiling water and add the lemon juice and sugar.

  3. Strain the mixture if it is not clear.

Make the snow and assemble

  1. Beat the egg whites until very stiff.

  2. When the jelly begins to set, add the egg whites.

  3. Beat the mixture until very light and foamy.

  4. Dip a mold in cold water.

  5. Arrange the pineapple and snow in alternate layers, using snow on the top and bottom.

  6. Set the mold on ice.

  7. Serve with whipped cream or a custard made from 1 pint of milk, flavored with grated lemon peel, and 3 egg yolks.

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
Sets the jelly so the layers hold their shape when turned out.
Egg whites
Beaten into foam, they give the snow its light, airy texture.
Pineapple
Supplies the fruit layers and its flavor to the dish.
Sugar
Sweetens the jelly and balances the tartness of the lemon.
Lemons
Add acidity and fresh flavor to the jelly.

The step that matters

Adding the egg whites to the jelly. Egg whites must be added only when the jelly has begun to set. If it is too liquid, the foam deflates and the snow loses its lightness; if it is too firm, the whites will not blend evenly.

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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