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Pineapple-strawberry Sundae

A sundae made with pineapple syrup, vanilla ice cream, and fresh strawberries.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Pineapple and vanilla match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 911 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓

Pineapple-strawberry Sundae

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Melt the sugar in a hot pan.

  2. Add hot water and boil until a syrup forms, about 5 minutes.

Make the pineapple mixture

  1. Cool the syrup, then mix in the crushed pineapple.

Serve

  1. Serve the pineapple mixture over vanilla ice cream.

  2. Top each dish with several strawberries.

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. Pineapple + vanillatop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together911 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Vanilla + creamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,301 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

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

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

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Sugar
Dissolves into the hot water to form a sweet syrup that coats the pineapple.
Crushed pineapple
Adds sweet-tart fruit flavor and moisture to the sauce.
Vanilla ice cream
Provides a cold, creamy base that softens slightly under the sauce.
Fresh strawberries
Add bright fruity aroma, color, and a fresh contrast to the sweet sauce.

The step that matters

Melting the sugar in a hot pan. Sugar can scorch quickly once it starts to melt, turning bitter and dark. Watch it closely and remove it from heat once it is melted and lightly colored, before adding the water.

Swap the pineapple

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

  1. Strawberryfits better
  2. Raspberryfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Pineapplethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, vanilla, cream. 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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