Name: Pineapple Conserve
Ingredients: 1 pint pineapple, canned or fresh, shredded or cut into small pieces; 1 cup bleached Sultana raisins, larger ones cut in half; ½ to ¾ cup chopped black walnut, butternut, or pecan meats; ¼ cup orange conserve; 2 cups sugar (or 1½ cups if using canned pineapple); a little water

Why it works: Pineapple and orange are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,664 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓

Pineapple Conserve

Ingredients

1 pint pineapple, canned or fresh, shredded or cut into small pieces
1 cup bleached Sultana raisins, larger ones cut in half
½ to ¾ cup chopped black walnut, butternut, or pecan meats
¼ cup orange conserve
2 cups sugar (or 1½ cups if using canned pineapple)
a little water

Directions

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan and add a little water, stirring well.
Heat slowly to boiling point.
Boil slowly for 1 hour or until the syrup is thick.

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 + orangetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,664 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
Walnut + orangetop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,058 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
Raisin + orangetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,684 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Raisin + walnuttop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together647 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Pineapple + walnuttop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together465 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

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

What each ingredient does

Pineapple: Provides the main fruit body and natural sweetness and acidity to the preserve.
Sugar: Sweetens the preserve and thickens it into syrup as the mixture cooks down.
Sultana raisins: Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness as they soften in the syrup.
Walnut, butternut, or pecan meats: Add crunch and a toasted, nutty flavour that contrasts with the soft fruit.

The step that matters

Boil slowly for 1 hour or until the syrup is thick. Sugar and fruit thicken as water evaporates and the syrup reaches a set point. Heating too fast can scorch the sugar on the bottom of the pan, while stopping too early leaves a runny preserve that will not set properly.

Swap the walnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pineapple, raisin, orange, sugar):

Almondfits better
Chestnutfits better
Pistachiofits better
Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pineapple, raisin, orange, sugar. 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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Orange Gelatin100 recipes

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Pineapple Conserve