Why it works: Pineapple and wine work together. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 325 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓
Pine-apple Cup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Chill the wine and soda water in rough ice for 1 hour before use.
Assemble
In a glass jug, combine the pineapple slices, verbena, Maraschino, and sugar candy.
Add the iced wine and soda water to the jug.
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 + winetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together325 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
-
Pineapple + sugartop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,841 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Wine + sugartop 31% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together9,581 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Pineapple
- Adds fruity aroma and natural sweetness to the cup.
- Ai wine
- Forms the base of the drink and supplies most of its body and flavor.
- Maraschino liqueur
- Adds sweetness and a bittersweet cherry-almond aroma.
- Sugar candy
- Dissolves slowly to sweeten the drink.
- Soda water
- Adds carbonation, lightness and a crisp, refreshing texture.
- Verbena
- Contributes a light herbal, lemony aroma.
The step that matters
Add the iced wine and soda water last. Carbon dioxide escapes more readily from warm liquids, so keeping the wine and soda cold and adding them at the end preserves fizz and slows dilution of the flavors.
Swap the pineapple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (wine, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Applefits better
- Grapefits about as well
- Pineapplethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against wine, sugar. 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.
You might also like
Wine Whey111 recipes
Raisin Wine64 recipes
Egg Wine58 recipes
Elderberry Wine51 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.