Name: Pineapple Ice
Ingredients: 1 pint pineapple juice; ½ pint simple syrup; ½ pint water; 2 tablespoons lemon juice

Why it works: Pineapple and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,964 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Pineapple Ice

Ingredients

1 pint pineapple juice
½ pint simple syrup
½ pint water
2 tablespoons lemon juice

Directions

Mix the pineapple juice, simple syrup, water, and lemon juice together.
Pour the mixture into a container and 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.

Pineapple + lemontop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,964 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Pineapple + syruptop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together568 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Syrup + lemontop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,235 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Pineapple juice: Provides the main flavor and sweetness, and its sugars keep the ice from freezing rock-hard.
Simple syrup: Adds sweetness and lowers the freezing point, giving a softer, more scoopable texture.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the pineapple flavor and balances the sweetness.