Name: Canned Pineapple
Ingredients: equal measure of shredded pineapple; equal measure of sugar; 3 cups of juice; 1 cup of water

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 ↓

Canned Pineapple

Ingredients

equal measure of shredded pineapple
equal measure of sugar
3 cups of juice
1 cup of water

Directions

Macerate

Layer shredded pineapple and sugar in a crock alternately.
Let it stand overnight.
In the morning, drain off the juice.

Cook and seal

Combine 3 cups of juice with 1 cup of water and bring to a boil.
Add the pineapple pulp and let it boil briefly, then seal.

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.

Pineapple + sugartop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked 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

Pineapple: Forms the fruit base and supplies the flavour and texture of the finished pack.
Sugar: Draws juice out of the fruit overnight and adds sweetness that helps preserve the pineapple.

“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.