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Pineapple Tapioca Pudding
3/4 cup minute or pearl tapioca Cold water to cover 2 1/2 cups boiling water 1/4 cup lemon juice 1 cup finely cut pineapple 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 cup finely cut pineapple Soak the pearl tapioca in cold water to cover for several hours or use the minute tapioca which does not require soaking. Drain, and add the boiling water and the salt. Cook in a double boiler until thoroughly transparent. Then add the sugar and lemon juice. Cut sliced pineapple into small pieces, and stir in the tapioca. Serve cold.
A straightforward cooked tapioca set cold, though the ingredient list as printed has two flaws worth catching before you start.
- The sugar is missingThe method says "add the sugar" but no quantity appears in the list. For 3/4 cup tapioca and 1/4 cup lemon juice, 1/2 to 2/3 cup sugar is the usual range; taste while it is still warm, since chilling mutes sweetness.
- Pineapple listed twice"1 cup finely cut pineapple" appears twice in the ingredients but is used once in the method. One cup is enough for the quantity of tapioca given; two makes a fruit salad bound with tapioca rather than a pudding.
- Pearl vs. minute tapiocaOld-style pearl tapioca is still sold and does need the several-hour soak. Minute (quick-cooking) tapioca is a much finer granule and thickens in about 15 minutes; if you use it, skip the soak and shorten the double-boiler time accordingly.
- Cook until transparentThis is the hinge. Undercooked tapioca stays chalky white at the center and will not soften later, no matter how long it chills. Cook over the double boiler until every grain is clear through, 45 minutes to an hour for pearl.
- Add acid at the end, as writtenThe lemon juice goes in after cooking for good reason: acid interferes with starch gelatinization. Do the same with the pineapple.
- Fresh pineapple will thin the puddingFresh pineapple and bromelain -- Raw pineapple contains bromelain, a protein-digesting enzyme. It does not act on starch, so a dairy-free pudding like this one should be unaffected; it is, however, well known to stop gelatine setting and may affect a dairy- or egg-enriched version. If you add cream at serving, canned or briefly cooked pineapple is the safer choice.
- Yield and settingAbout 4 to 5 servings. Chill at least 3 hours; the tapioca continues to firm as it cools, so a mixture that looks loose off the heat will be right cold.
Tapioca is starch extracted from cassava root, a South American plant carried through the tropics by Portuguese and Spanish trade, and it reached American kitchens as cheap dried pearls sold by the pound. Its appeal to a meatless dish is practical: it thickens and gives body without eggs, gelatine or suet, all of which either come from animals or were considered rich fare. Canned Hawaiian pineapple, widely available and inexpensive after commercial packing expanded in the 1900s and 1910s, turns up constantly in cold desserts of the period for exactly that reason.