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Pineapple Preserves

A sweet pineapple preserve made by layering fruit and sugar, boiling the syrup, and reconstituting over the fruit.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
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Why it works: Pineapple and sugar 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 ↓

Pineapple Preserves

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit

  1. Peel and slice the pineapples.

  2. For each pound of fruit, use a pound of sugar.

  3. Layer the sugar and fruit in a deep bowl, with sugar on top and bottom.

  4. Let the pineapple sit overnight.

Make the syrup

  1. In the morning, strain the syrup into a preserving kettle.

  2. Place the kettle over the fire and boil gently, skimming until clear.

  3. Continue boiling slowly until a cooled drop thickens to a medium consistency.

  4. Pour the syrup back over the pineapple and let it cool.

  5. Once cold, store the preserves as directed in the pineapple jelly recipe.

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. Pineapple + sugartop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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

Ripe pineapples
Provides the fruit that gives the preserves their flavor and body.
Sugar
Draws out juice and, once boiled, thickens the syrup and preserves the fruit.

The step that matters

Boiling the syrup to a medium consistency. Boiling concentrates the sugar and sets the syrup. Stopping too early leaves it runny, while boiling too long can make it stiff or cause sugar to crystallize. Testing a cooled drop shows when it has reached the right point.

“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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