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Dessert

Pine Apple Jelly

A preserved pineapple jelly made with pineapple, sugar, water, lemon, gelatin, and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Pine Apple Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pineapple base

  1. Pound the pineapple and place it in a saucepan with water, lemon rind, lemon juice, and sugar.

  2. Simmer for 30 minutes.

Add the gelatine and clarify

  1. Dissolve the gelatin in a little water over low heat in a separate saucepan.

  2. Once the pineapple mixture is cool, add the dissolved gelatin, whipped egg whites, and crushed shells.

  3. Whisk the mixture over low heat until it comes to a boil.

  4. Strain the mixture.

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. Sugar + lemontop 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).

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

Pineapple
Provides the main fruit flavour and sweet-sharp body of the jelly.
Leaf gelatine
Sets the liquid into a firm, wobbly jelly when chilled.
Eggs
Whites and shells collect particles as they heat, clarifying the jelly to a clear finish.
Loaf sugar
Adds sweetness and helps give the jelly a smooth, clean set.
Lemons
Adds acidity that brightens the pineapple flavour and balances the sugar.

The step that matters

Adding the gelatine and egg whites to a cool mixture. If the pineapple mixture is still hot, the whipped egg whites can scramble and the gelatine may weaken. Letting it cool first protects the foam and the set.

Swap the pineapple

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, lemon, 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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