Why it works: Cream and sugar 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 Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Make the cream mixture
Whip the cream until stiff.
Gently fold the whipped cream into the pineapple puree and add the diced pineapple.
Make the gelatine mixture
Dissolve the gelatine and sugar in the water.
Add the lemon juice to the gelatine mixture and let it cool slightly.
Combine and set
Lightly stir the gelatine mixture into the cream mixture.
Pour into a prepared mold and refrigerate until firm.
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.
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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Pineapple + lemontop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,964 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Pineapple + sugartop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,841 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Cream + pineappletop 25% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,574 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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
- Cream
- Whipped into a stiff foam that gives the dessert its light, airy body.
- Pineapple puree
- Supplies the main pineapple flavour and moisture to the cream base.
- Leaf gelatine
- Sets the mixture so it holds its shape when chilled and unmoulded.
- Caster sugar
- Sweetens the dessert and helps dissolve the gelatine in the water.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the pineapple flavour and balances the sweetness.
The step that matters
Lightly stir the gelatine mixture into the cream mixture.. Gelatine begins to set as it cools, so if it is too cold or too thick it forms lumps in the cream. Letting it cool only slightly and stirring gently keeps the mixture smooth and preserves the air from the whipped cream.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, pineapple, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Strawberryfits better
- Bananafits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against cream, pineapple, sugar. 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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