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Dessert

Pineapple Ice

A frozen dessert made from grated pineapple, lemon juice, water, powdered sugar, and folded egg whites.

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 Ice

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Grate the pineapple and juice the lemon.

  2. Combine the grated pineapple, lemon juice, and water in a bowl.

  3. Add 2 pounds of powdered sugar to the mixture and stir until the sugar is dissolved.

Freeze and finish

  1. Chill the mixture in the freezer until it is almost frozen.

  2. Beat the egg whites to a stiff froth and fold them into the mixture before it is fully frozen.

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. Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  3. Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  4. Pineapple + sugartop 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).

Lemon and sugar 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

Pineapple
Provides the main fruit flavor and moisture for the ice cream base.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the base and lowers its freezing point so it stays softer.
Egg whites
Whipped to a foam and folded in, they add lightness and a smoother, airier texture.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the pineapple flavor.

The step that matters

Fold in the egg whites before the mixture is fully frozen. If the base is frozen solid, the whipped egg whites cannot blend in evenly and the ice cream turns out dense and icy. Folding while it is still slushy keeps the foam trapped for a lighter texture.

Swap the pineapple

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

  1. Orangefits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Limefits better
  4. Pineapplethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, 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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