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Dessert

Pineapple Sherbet

A chilled pineapple dessert made with sugar, water, egg whites, salt, and shredded pineapple.

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

Why it works: Sugar and pineapple 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 Sherbet

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Boil the sugar and water until it threads, or to 236°F (113°C) if using a thermometer.

Combine and cool

  1. Pour the boiled mixture into the well-beaten egg whites.

  2. Add the salt and beat until creamy.

  3. Cool the mixture and then add the pineapple.

Freeze

  1. Pour the mixture into a mold with a tight cover and pack it in salt and ice to set for 2 to 3 hours.

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. Sugar + pineappletop 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

Sugar
Sweetens the sherbet and, when boiled into syrup, helps give it a smooth texture.
Egg whites
Whipped to foam, they add lightness and airy structure to the sherbet.
Pineapple
Provides the fruit flavor and acidity that define the sherbet.

The step that matters

Boiling the sugar and water. Sugar syrup taken to the right stage controls how much water is left and how firm the sherbet sets. Too little boiling leaves it thin and watery; too much makes it hard and icy.

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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