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Pineapple Punch

A chilled pineapple punch made with sugar, water, lemon juice, pineapple, fruit, and sparkling water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Pineapple Punch

Why it works: Lemon and pineapple are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,964 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Pineapple Punch

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Boil together sugar and water for 5 minutes.

  2. Add lemon juice and grated pineapple.

  3. Let the mixture stand for 1 hour.

Serve

  1. Strain the mixture and add shaved ice to fill the punch bowl.

  2. Drop fresh fruit on top and add Apollinaris.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Lemon + pineappletop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,964 recipes

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

  2. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + pineappletop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,841 recipes

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

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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

Sugar
Dissolves into the water to sweeten the punch and give it body.
Lemon
Adds acidity that brightens the sweetness and balances the flavor.
Pineapple
Contributes fresh fruit flavor and aroma to the punch.
Raspberries or other fresh fruit
Adds fresh fruit flavor and visual appeal on top of the punch.

The step that matters

Let the mixture stand for 1 hour. Standing lets the grated pineapple and lemon juice steep into the syrup, pulling out flavor and aroma. Straining too early leaves the punch tasting thin and less fruity.

Swap the pineapple

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

  1. Orangefits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Vanillafits better
  4. Pineapplethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, lemon. 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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