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Dessert

Pineapple Mousse

A chilled dessert made from pineapple, sugar, water, gelatin, and heavy cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Pineapple Mousse

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pineapple base

  1. Combine chopped pineapple, sugar, and water in a saucepan.

  2. Cook the mixture for 10 minutes.

  3. Strain the cooked mixture.

  4. Dissolve the Minute Gelatine in 1 cup of the hot juice.

Finish and serve

  1. When the mixture begins to thicken, gently fold in the whipped cream.

  2. Serve chilled.

  3. Canned pineapple can be used as an alternative.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 soft, sliceable mousse structure as it cools.
Heavy cream
Whipped and folded in, it adds lightness and a creamy, airy texture.
Pineapple
Provides the main fruit flavour and acidity in the mousse.
Sugar
Sweetens the pineapple juice and balances its acidity.

The step that matters

Fold in the cream as the mixture begins to thicken. If the gelatine mixture is too warm, the cream will deflate and lose its air; if it has set too firmly, the cream will not blend evenly. Folding at the point of slight thickening keeps the mousse light and smooth.

Swap the pineapple

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, 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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