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 ↓
Sunshine Jam
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fruit
Wash the strawberries, drain, and hull them.
Peel the pineapple and cut it into small pieces.
Make the jam
Bring the fruit slowly to a boil with a little water.
Add the heated sugar and cook until it jellies.
Pour into marmalade jars.
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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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
- Strawberries
- Provide the main fruit flavor and bulk of the jam.
- Pineapple
- Adds acidity and natural pectin that help the jam set.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the jam and helps it thicken and set as it cooks.
The step that matters
Add the heated sugar and cook until it jellies. Sugar and pectin set the jam only at the right concentration, so undercooking leaves it runny while overcooking can make it stiff and dull in flavor.
“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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