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Dessert

Pineapple Sponge

A chilled pineapple gelatin dessert made with chopped pineapple, sugar, gelatin, egg whites, and served with custard or whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Pineapple Sponge

Why it works: Pineapple and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,841 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Pineapple Sponge

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Simmer the chopped pineapple and sugar for 10 minutes.

  2. Soak the gelatine in ½ cup of water for 2 hours.

  3. When the pineapple mixture is nearly cool, add the soaked gelatine.

Make the sponge

  1. Beat the egg whites until they begin to thicken, then fold them into the mixture.

  2. Pour into a mold and refrigerate until set.

Serve

  1. Serve with boiled custard or 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. Pineapple + sugartop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,841 recipes

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

  2. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  3. Pineapple + eggtop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,075 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Gelatine
Sets the liquid mixture into a soft, wobbly structure that holds its shape when chilled.
Egg whites
Whipped into foam, they lighten the mixture and give the sponge its airy, spongy texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the pineapple and balances its acidity.
Pineapple
Provides the main fruit flavour and liquid for the dessert.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Egg whites should only begin to thicken before folding. Over-whipped whites are dry and grainy and deflate when mixed, losing the airy sponge texture. The gelatine mixture should also be nearly cool, because heat can collapse the foam.

Swap the pineapple

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Lemonfits better
  4. Pineapplethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against 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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