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 Syrup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the juice
Pare and cut the pineapples into pieces.
Add 1 quart of water to the pineapple pieces and boil until very soft.
Mash the mixture and strain it to extract the juice.
Make the syrup
To 1 pint of the juice, add 1 pound of sugar.
Boil the mixture until it reaches a rich syrup consistency.
Cork the syrup 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
- Pineapples
- Provide the fruit flavour and the juice that becomes the syrup base.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and, when boiled down, thickens the juice into a syrup.
The step that matters
Boiling the juice with sugar to a rich syrup consistency. Sugar dissolved in juice and boiled concentrates the liquid and raises its sugar content, so it thickens as it cools. Stopping too early leaves a thin syrup that may spoil sooner; boiling too long can make it overly thick or caramelise.
“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 Sherbet116 recipes
Pineapple Pudding72 recipes
Pineapple Cream58 recipes
Pineapple Jelly39 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.