Why it works: Sugar and pineapple are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,841 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Pine-apple Marmalade
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Weigh the pineapple and remove the eyes.
Grate the pineapple coarsely.
Cook
In a china-lined preserve kettle, combine the grated pineapple and sugar.
Heat gradually, stirring often.
Cook gently and steadily for 3 to 3.5 hours until clear and thick.
Jar
Pour into tumblers and cover once cool.
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.
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Sugar + pineappletop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,841 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Pineapple
- Provides the fruit base and natural flavor, and its pectin helps the marmalade set.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the marmalade and, as it thickens, helps it set firm and keep well.
The step that matters
Cook gently and steadily. Sugar and fruit thicken as water evaporates. Heating too hard can scorch the sugar at the bottom of the kettle and darken the flavor, while cooking too briefly leaves the marmalade runny. Stirring often and keeping the heat gentle protects both texture and colour.
“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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