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 ↓
Pine-Apple Tablets
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the juice
Cut the pineapple into slices and pound it in a mortar.
Extract the juice through a cloth.
Make the candy
Boil the desired amount of sugar until it reaches a crack stage.
Gradually add the pineapple juice to the boiling sugar.
Once combined and the sugar is reduced to the right consistency, pour it onto a slab to cool.
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.
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Pineapple + sugartop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,841 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
- Pineapple
- Supplies the juice that flavours the candy and gives it its fruity acidity.
- Sugar
- Forms the candy mass and sets firm as the syrup cools, giving it sweetness and structure.
The step that matters
Reducing the sugar to the right consistency. Sugar syrup sets firm as it cools, so stopping the boil too early leaves candy that is soft and sticky, while cooking too far makes it hard and brittle. Adding juice to boiling sugar also makes it bubble and cool the syrup, so the juice should be added gradually while the syrup is still hot.
“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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