Skip to main content
Dessert

Pineapple Water Ice

A chilled dessert made from pineapple, water, lemon juice, gelatin, sugar, and egg white.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Gelatin and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,778 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Pineapple Water Ice

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. In a pot, combine the pineapple, water, lemon juice, and gelatin. Stir until the gelatin is dissolved.

  2. Heat the mixture on the stove until it just comes to a scald, then strain it while warm.

Freeze

  1. Allow the mixture to cool, then freeze it until it reaches a mushy consistency.

  2. Stir in the beaten egg white, then continue to freeze until solid.

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. Gelatin + sugartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,778 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Pineapple + lemontop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,964 recipes

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

  3. Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  4. Pineapple + gelatintop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together282 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

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

Gelatin
Helps set the frozen mixture with a smoother, less icy texture.
Egg white
Adds airy lightness and body to the frozen mixture when beaten and folded in.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the sweetness of the pineapple.
Pineapple
Provides the main fruit flavor and sweetness.

The step that matters

Stir in the beaten egg white at the mushy stage. Folding the egg white into a partly frozen base keeps it airy and distributed. If the base is fully solid or still liquid, the white will not blend evenly and the texture suffers.

Swap the pineapple

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Orangefits better
  3. Raspberryfits about as well
  4. Pineapplethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, gelatin, 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.

You might also like

Lemon CakeLemon Cake228 recipesLemon IceLemon Ice147 recipesPineapple SherbetPineapple Sherbet116 recipesLemon SherbetLemon Sherbet103 recipes