Name: Pineapple Sauce
Ingredients: 1 fresh ripe pineapple, grated very fine; 2 tablespoons preserved ginger, chopped; 2 cups sugar; 2 tablespoons ginger syrup

Why it works: Sugar and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Pineapple Sauce

Ingredients

1 fresh ripe pineapple, grated very fine
2 tablespoons preserved ginger, chopped
2 cups sugar
2 tablespoons ginger syrup

Directions

Grate the fresh ripe pineapple very fine.
Add sugar to the grated pineapple and let it stand for 30 minutes.
Stir in the chopped ginger and ginger syrup.
Mix well and serve cold.

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 + syruptop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,842 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Pineapple + gingertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together559 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Ginger + syruptop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together950 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ginger + sugartop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together14,054 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Pineapple + syruptop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together568 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Ginger and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 14,054 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

Pineapple: Provides the sauce's main fruit flavour and most of its liquid once grated.
Sugar: Sweetens the sauce and draws juice out of the grated pineapple as it stands.
Preserved ginger: Adds spicy, aromatic flavour and small chewy pieces throughout the sauce.