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 ↓
Pine-apple Shrub
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the juice
Pare and cut the pineapple into pieces.
Add the pineapple pieces to 1 quart of water and boil until soft.
Mash the mixture and strain to extract the juice.
Make the syrup
To 1 pint of the juice, add 1 pound of sugar and boil to create a rich syrup.
Bottle the syrup and cork it tightly.
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 + sugartop 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 flavoring and the juice that becomes the base of the syrup.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the juice and thickens it into a rich syrup as it boils.
The step that matters
Boiling the juice with sugar to a rich syrup. Sugar dissolves fully in the hot juice and concentrates as water evaporates, so the syrup thickens and keeps well. Stopping the boil too early leaves it thin and more likely to spoil, while boiling too long can make it overly thick.
“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.
You might also like
Pineapple Lemonade18 recipes
Pineapple Punch18 recipes
Vegetable Soup350 recipes
Raspberry Vinegar214 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.