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Pineapple Sponge

A gelatin dessert made with pineapple, sugar, water, egg whites, and gelatin.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Pineapple Sponge

Why it works: Pineapple and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,841 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Pineapple Sponge

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Soak the gelatine in ¼ cup cold water.

  2. Chop the pineapple and place it in a saucepan with the sugar and 1 cup of water.

  3. Simmer for 10 minutes.

  4. Add the soaked gelatine, remove from heat, and strain the mixture.

Set the sponge

  1. Once cool, add the egg whites and beat until the mixture begins to thicken.

  2. Pour into a mold and let it harden.

Serve

  1. Serve with soft custard.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + sugartop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,841 recipes

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

  2. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  3. Pineapple + eggtop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,075 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Gelatine
Sets the liquid into a firm, sliceable gel as it cools.
Egg whites
Whip into foam that lightens the mixture into a sponge-like texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the pineapple and balances its acidity.
Pineapple
Provides the main fruit flavour and acidity.

The step that matters

Beat the egg whites into the cooled mixture. The mixture must be cool but still liquid when the whites are added. If it is too hot, the whites cook or deflate, and if it has already set, they will not blend in evenly.

Swap the pineapple

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg. 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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