Why it works: Orange and pineapple are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,664 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓
Fruit Cup
Ingredients
Directions
Cut oranges into very small pieces and mix with chopped pineapple.
Sweeten the mixture to taste.
Fill punch glasses with the fruit mixture.
Top each glass with a tablespoon of orange or lemon ice.
Garnish with a maraschino cherry and a sprig of mint.
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.
-
Orange + pineappletop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,664 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
-
Pineapple + minttop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together182 recipes
Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).
-
Orange + minttop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together549 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
-
Pineapple + sugartop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,841 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Orange + sugartop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together19,212 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Orange and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,212 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
Swap the mint
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (orange, pineapple, sugar):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Gingerfits better
- Allspicefits better
- Mintthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against orange, pineapple, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
More fruit cup recipes
You might also like
Orange Bundt Cake349 recipes
Orange Cream Rice Pudding121 recipes
Pineapple Sherbet116 recipes
Orange Gelatin100 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.