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 ↓
Pine Apple Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the pineapple
Peel and slice the pineapples.
Simmer the slices in 6 ounces of sugar for 10 minutes.
Combine the pineapple peel with 1 pint of boiled cream and cover it.
Once cold, strain the mixture through a sieve.
Make the custard and freeze
Mix in 6 ounces of sugar and the yolks of 12 eggs.
Simmer the mixture on low heat for 4 minutes.
Once cold, freeze the mixture as usual.
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.
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Pineapple + sugartop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,841 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Cream + eggtop 24% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together42,166 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
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Pineapple + creamtop 25% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,574 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Cream and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the cream into a smooth custard as they set during gentle simmering.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and softens the texture of the frozen pudding.
- Boiled cream
- Provides richness and fat, giving the pudding a creamy mouthfeel.
- Pineapples
- Supply the main fruit flavour and aroma of the pudding.
The step that matters
Simmer the custard on low heat. Egg yolks thicken by gentle heat, but they can curdle and turn grainy if overheated. Keeping the heat low and the simmer brief helps the custard stay smooth.
Swap the pineapple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, cream, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Strawberryfits better
- Pineapplethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cream, 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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