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 ↓
Summer Drinks
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the pineapple
Pare and grate the pineapples.
Press the pulp through a sieve.
Reserve a small quantity of pineapple to slice and add later.
Make the ice
Stir the pineapple pulp into the clarified sugar and lemon juice.
Freeze the mixture.
When half frozen, add the reserved pineapple slices.
Add the egg whites and set
Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks.
Mix the beaten egg whites with powdered sugar.
Thoroughly mix the egg white mixture into the ice with a wooden spatula.
Set aside to harden.
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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Pineapple + lemontop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,964 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together44,316 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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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).
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 flavour, sweetness and moisture to the ice.
- Egg whites
- Beaten to stiff peaks, they trap air and make the ice lighter and fluffier.
- Clarified sugar
- Sweetens the ice and lowers its freezing point, keeping it softer and scoopable.
- Powdered sugar
- Sweetens the beaten whites and helps them hold their stiff peaks.
- Lemon
- Adds acidity that brightens the pineapple flavour.
The step that matters
Thoroughly mix the egg white mixture into the ice. Beaten egg whites trap air that makes the ice light. Stirring too roughly or into ice that is too hard or too soft can deflate the foam or leave streaks of white, so the texture turns dense or uneven.
Swap the pineapple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lemon, sugar, egg):
- Orangefits better
- Vanillafits better
- Limefits better
- 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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