Name: Pineapple and Guava Jelly
Ingredients: guavas; water; pineapple; sugar

Why it works: Guava and pineapple share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 20 recipes. Both carry mesifurane, which smells caramel, sweet. The science ↓

Pineapple and Guava Jelly

Ingredients

guavas
water
pineapple
sugar

Directions

Cut the ends off the guavas, add a little water, and cook until soft.
Peel an equal amount of pineapple, cut it into small pieces, and cook until soft.
Strain both juices through a bag.
Add an equal amount of sugar to the juices and boil again, stirring until the sugar is dissolved.
Skim off any foam, and when it boils hard, test by dropping a bit on a saucer.
If it jellies when cool, it is done.
Pour into sterilized bottles and seal.

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.

Guava + pineappletop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together20 recipes

Shared aroma: mesifurane (caramel, sweet).
Pineapple + sugartop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,841 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Guava + sugartop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together115 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).