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Dessert

Pineapple Chutney

A sweet and spicy pineapple chutney made with pineapple, vinegar, brown sugar, raisins, almonds, garlic, pepper, ginger, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,781 recipes. Both carry 2-nonanone, which smells fruity, floral. The science ↓

Pineapple Chutney

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Cook the pineapple, vinegar, and salt in a pot.

  2. Finely chop the nuts, raisins, garlic, and pepper.

  3. Add the chopped mixture to the pineapple.

  4. Boil down the mixture until it thickens.

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. Raisin + almondtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,781 recipes

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

  2. Garlic + gingertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,402 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Pepper + garlictop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,090 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Pepper + gingertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,800 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Pineapple + gingertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together559 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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

What each ingredient does

Pineapple
Forms the bulk of the chutney and supplies moisture and fruity sweetness.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and balances the sweetness.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and helps build a thick, glossy texture as the mixture reduces.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness.
Almonds
Add crunch and nutty richness that contrasts with the soft fruit.
Ginger
Adds warm, aromatic spice that gives the chutney its distinctive flavour.

The step that matters

Boil down the mixture until it thickens. Boiling concentrates the sugars and drives off water, so the chutney thickens as it cools. Stop too early and it stays runny; reduce too long and the sugars can scorch on the bottom of the pot.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, sugar, garlic, vinegar, pineapple, ginger, almond):

  1. Limefits better
  2. Cherryfits better
  3. Mangofits better
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, sugar, garlic, vinegar, pineapple, ginger, almond. 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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