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Pineapple Jelly

A gelatinous dessert made from pineapple, sugar, lemon juice, egg white, and gelatin.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Pineapple Jelly

Why it works: Lemon and pineapple 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 Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak gelatin in ½ pint cold water for 1 hour.

  2. Open the can of pineapple.

  3. Strain off the juice.

  4. Cut the pineapple into small pieces.

  5. Put the pineapple in a porcelain saucepan.

  6. Pour boiling water over the pineapple.

  7. Simmer for 20 minutes.

  8. Skim out the pineapple.

Make the jelly

  1. Add sugar.

  2. Add gelatin.

  3. Add lemon juice.

  4. Add pineapple juice.

  5. Add the egg white and shell.

  6. Bring to a boil.

  7. Reduce heat.

  8. Keep hot for 20 minutes without boiling.

  9. Strain through a napkin into molds.

Chill

  1. Let cool.

  2. Once cool, refrigerate until hard.

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. Lemon + pineappletop 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. Sugar + pineappletop 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

Gelatin
Sets the liquid into a firm, sliceable jelly as it cools.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the tartness of the fruit and lemon.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor of the pineapple.
Pineapple
Provides the main fruit flavor and the pieces that give the jelly its character.
Egg white
Coagulates during heating and traps cloudy particles, helping clarify the jelly.

The step that matters

Keep hot for 20 minutes without boiling. Egg white clarifies the liquid only when it rises gently and coagulates. Boiling hard breaks up the coagulated egg and clouds the jelly, so the heat must stay just below a boil.

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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