Why it works: Pineapple and sugar 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 Marmalade
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the pineapple
Pare, slice, core, and weigh the pineapple; cut it into small bits.
Heat the chopped pineapple in a vessel over boiling water, covering it to retain flavor.
When the pineapple is hot and clear, add it to the syrup.
Make the syrup
Make a syrup by boiling 1 cup of water with 2 pounds of sugar until dissolved.
Cook and jar
Boil together for 30 minutes, stirring constantly until it becomes a clear, bright paste.
Put the marmalade into small jars while warm, but do not cover until cold.
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.
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Pineapple + sugartop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,841 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Pineapple
- Provides the fruit bulk and flavor that the marmalade is built around.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the marmalade and, boiled down, thickens it into a set paste.
- Water
- Dissolves the sugar to make the syrup that the pineapple cooks in.
The step that matters
Boiling with constant stirring for 30 minutes. Sugar concentrates as water evaporates and can scorch on the bottom of the pan. Constant stirring prevents burning and lets the mixture reach a thick, clear paste that sets as it cools.
“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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