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Dessert

Pineapple Custard

A custard made with eggs, butter, sugar, water, pineapple, and cornstarch.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and pineapple are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,134 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Pineapple Custard

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. In a saucepan, combine water, sugar, butter, and cornstarch.

  2. Cook over medium heat until thick.

  3. Remove from heat and stir in beaten egg yolks until thickened.

  4. Add grated pineapple and mix well.

Fill the crust

  1. Pour the mixture into a pre-baked crust.

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. Butter + pineappletop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,134 recipes

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

  2. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Sugar + pineappletop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,841 recipes

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

  5. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 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

Eggs
Yolks enrich the custard and help it set as it thickens.
Cornstarch
Starch swells when heated, thickening the custard into a smooth filling.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps give the custard its body.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother, silkier mouthfeel.
Grated pineapple
Adds fruity flavour, acidity and moisture to the filling.

The step that matters

Stirring in the beaten egg yolks off the heat. Egg proteins set at higher temperatures and can scramble if added to a very hot mixture. Removing the pan from the heat first and stirring steadily helps the yolks thicken the custard smoothly instead of curdling.

Swap the pineapple

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, sugar. 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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