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Drink

Fruit Cup

A chilled fruit beverage made with lemon, pineapple, berries, powdered sugar, and ice water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and pineapple 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 ↓

Fruit Cup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit

  1. Thinly pare the yellow rind from the lemons and squeeze the juice over it in an earthen bowl.

  2. Let it stand overnight.

  3. Thinly slice the ripe pineapple.

  4. Let it sit overnight in ½ pound of powdered sugar.

  5. Crush the berries.

  6. Let them sit overnight in ½ pound of powdered sugar.

Make the punch

  1. Strain the juice from the prepared fruits, pressing out all the juice.

  2. Mix the strained juice with 2 pounds of powdered sugar and 3 quarts of ice-water.

  3. Stir until the sugar is dissolved.

  4. Strain the mixture again through a muslin or bolting-cloth sieve.

  5. Chill until ready to serve.

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.

  1. Lemon + pineappletop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,964 recipes

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

  2. Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + pineappletop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,841 recipes

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

Lemon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Lemons
Their juice and rind supply the sharp acidity and aroma that define the punch.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the fruit and punch, and dissolves easily in the cold liquid.
Pineapple
Adds sweetness, juice and tropical flavour as it macerates in sugar.
Berries
Crushing releases their juice and colour, adding fruity aroma and body.
Ice-water
Dilutes the juice and keeps the punch cold and refreshing.

The step that matters

Let the fruit sit overnight in sugar. Sugar draws juice out of the fruit through osmosis, so the fruit must rest long enough to release its flavour before pressing. Skipping this leaves the juice weak.

Swap the pineapple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lemon, sugar):

  1. Orangefits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Vanillafits better
  4. Pineapplethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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