Name: Pine Apple
Ingredients: 2 lbs sugar; 1 qt water; 3 egg whites; 1 ripe pineapple

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 ↓

Pine Apple

Ingredients

2 lbs sugar
1 qt water
3 egg whites
1 ripe pineapple

Directions

Peel and slice the pineapple.
Sprinkle half the sugar over the pineapple and let it stand for three hours or more.
Squeeze out the juice from the pineapple.
Add the remaining sugar and water to the juice.
Beat the egg whites until foamy and stir them into the mixture.
Strain the mixture into a freezer.

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.

Sugar + pineappletop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,841 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together122,807 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Egg + pineappletop 29% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,075 recipes

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