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Dessert

Pineapple Bavarian Cream

A chilled dessert made with grated pineapple, gelatin, lemon juice, and heavy cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 Bavarian Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pineapple base

  1. Scald the grated pineapple in a saucepan.

  2. Soften the gelatin in cold water, then add it to the pineapple.

  3. Stir in the lemon juice.

Thicken and set

  1. Place the mixture in a bowl of ice water and stir until it begins to thicken.

  2. Fold in the beaten heavy cream.

  3. Mold the mixture and refrigerate until set.

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. Pineapple + creamtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,574 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Lemon + creamtop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,640 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Lemon and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,640 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 mixture into a firm, sliceable cream once chilled.
Heavy cream
Adds richness and a light, airy texture when folded in.
Grated pineapple
Provides the main fruit flavor and moisture for the cream.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the sweet pineapple flavor.

The step that matters

Thicken over ice water before folding in the cream. Stirring over ice water cools the mixture just until it begins to thicken. If it is still runny, the whipped cream will deflate and the cream will not hold its shape; if it sets too firm, it will fold in unevenly and form lumps.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pineapple, cream):

  1. Strawberryfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pineapple, cream. 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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