Name: Pineapple Frappe
Ingredients: 3 cups sugar; 1 cup water; 3 egg whites; 1 can grated pineapple; cream and milk to desired quantity

Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Pineapple Frappe

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

Boil sugar and water until it forms a string when dripped from a spoon.

Combine and freeze

Pour the syrup over the beaten egg whites and beat until smooth.
Add the grated pineapple and enough cream and milk to reach your desired quantity.
Chill the mixture and then freeze.

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.

Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Pineapple + milktop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together885 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Cream + milktop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together29,399 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together88,785 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together77,875 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Sugar and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Egg whites: Whipped into foam, they give the frozen dessert a light, airy structure.
Sugar: Sweetens the dessert and, dissolved into syrup, keeps the texture soft when frozen.
Pineapple: Adds the main fruit flavor and a bright acidity.
Cream: Adds fat, which makes the frozen mixture rich and smooth rather than icy.

The step that matters

Boiling the syrup to the string stage. Boiling the sugar and water until it forms a string sets the sugar concentration. Boiling too briefly leaves more water, which freezes into ice crystals and makes the frappé thin. Boiling too long makes the syrup hard and less smooth.