Name: Pineapple and Coconut
Ingredients: 1 fresh pineapple; 1 cup grated coconut; ¼ cup sugar

Why it works: Pineapple and coconut match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 651 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Pineapple and Coconut

Ingredients

1 fresh pineapple
1 cup grated coconut
¼ cup sugar

Directions

Cut the fresh pineapple into small triangles and place it in a dish.
Top with grated coconut and sugar.
Serve as a dessert.

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.

Pineapple + coconuttop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together651 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Pineapple + sugartop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,841 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Coconut + sugartop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together5,742 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Pineapple: Provides the fresh fruit base and its natural sweetness and acidity.
Grated coconut: Adds fat, a soft texture and a mild tropical aroma.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and balances the acidity of the pineapple.