Name: Tomato and Pineapple
Ingredients: 3 tomatoes, sliced; 1 small pineapple, sliced; equal parts honey and lemon for dressing

Why it works: Pineapple and honey work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 262 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓

Tomato and Pineapple

Ingredients

3 tomatoes, sliced
1 small pineapple, sliced
equal parts honey and lemon for dressing

Directions

Prepare

Slice the tomatoes and pineapple into small pieces.
Combine the sliced tomatoes and pineapple in a bowl.

Dress and serve

Make a dressing by mixing equal parts honey and lemon.
Pour the dressing over the tomato and pineapple mixture.

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 + honeytop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together262 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
Tomato + lemontop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,592 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Tomato + pineappletop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together306 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Pineapple + lemontop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,964 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Tomato + honeytop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together674 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes: Provide the main body and fresh, slightly acidic flavour of the salad.
Pineapple: Adds sweetness and juiciness, balancing the tomatoes' acidity.
Honey: Sweetens the dressing and helps it cling to the fruit.
Lemon: Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the honey's sweetness.