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Dessert

Pineapple Pie

A fruit pie with pineapple filling topped with meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. 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 saucepan, combine chopped pineapple, sugar, cream, egg yolks, butter, and cornstarch.

  2. Cook the mixture over medium heat until thickened.

  3. Pour the filling into a pie crust.

Top and bake

  1. Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form, then gradually add 1 tablespoon of sugar.

  2. Spread the meringue over the pie filling.

  3. Return the pie to a 350°F (175°C) oven and bake until the meringue is delicately browned.

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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Pineapple + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,134 recipes

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

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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 and add richness as they cook with the cream.
Cornstarch
Thickens the pineapple filling as it heats, giving it a sliceable set.
Egg whites
Whip into a stiff foam that forms the meringue topping and browns in the oven.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and the meringue, and helps stabilise the whipped whites.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness to the custard-like filling.

The step that matters

Cook the filling until thickened. Cornstarch and egg yolks only thicken when heated enough; undercooked filling stays runny and can make the pie soggy and hard to slice. Cook gently over medium heat, stirring, until it coats a spoon.

Swap the pineapple

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Strawberryfits better
  3. Raspberryfits better
  4. Pineapplethe original

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