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Dessert

Pineapple Pudding

A custard-like dessert made with scalded cream, corn starch, sugar, salt, egg whites, cold milk, and grated pineapple.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Pineapple Pudding

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 Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Mix corn starch, sugar, salt, and cold milk in a bowl.

  2. Add the mixture to the scalded cream in a double boiler.

  3. Stir constantly until it thickens, about 10 to 15 minutes.

Finish and serve

  1. Remove from heat and fold in the beaten egg whites and grated pineapple.

  2. Mold the mixture, let it congeal, and serve with whipped cream.

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. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Corn + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  3. Pineapple + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together885 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  4. Corn + pineappletop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together150 recipes

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

  5. Cream + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Corn starch
Thickens the cream mixture into a set, sliceable pudding as it cooks.
Eggs
Whites beaten and folded in add lightness and a softer, airier texture.
Scalded cream
Provides fat and richness, giving the pudding a smooth, creamy body.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the tartness of the pineapple.
Grated pineapple
Adds fruity flavour and acidity that cuts through the richness.

The step that matters

Stir constantly while the mixture thickens. Starch granules can settle and scorch on the bottom or form lumps if not kept moving. Constant stirring in the double boiler keeps heat even and the starch dispersed, so the custard thickens smoothly before it is folded with the egg whites.

Swap the pineapple

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Pineapplethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, sugar, corn, egg, milk. 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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