Name: Pineapple Conserve
Ingredients: 1 pineapple (or 2 canned, cut fine); 4 cups rhubarb (cut fine); 8 cups sugar (or 7 cups if using canned apple); 1 lemon (rind grated); 2 oranges (run through meat grinder); ½ pound blanched almonds (cut fine)

Why it works: Rhubarb and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 117 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Pineapple Conserve

Ingredients

1 pineapple (or 2 canned, cut fine)
4 cups rhubarb (cut fine)
8 cups sugar (or 7 cups if using canned apple)
1 lemon (rind grated)
2 oranges (run through meat grinder)
½ pound blanched almonds (cut fine)

Directions

Combine the pineapple, rhubarb, sugar, lemon rind, oranges, and almonds in a large pot.
Cook over medium heat for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.

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.

Rhubarb + almondtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together117 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,634 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Rhubarb + orangetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together299 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).
Pineapple + orangetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,664 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
Orange + almondtop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,125 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Pineapple: Provides the main fruit flavour and most of the body of the preserve.
Rhubarb: Adds tartness and natural pectin that help the preserve thicken as it cooks.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the fruit set into a thick, spreadable mass.
Almonds: Add texture and a nutty crunch to the soft fruit.
Oranges: Add citrus acidity and bitter aroma from the peel and pulp.
Lemon rind: Adds fragrant citrus oils and brightness to balance the sugar.

The step that matters

Stirring during the cook. Fruit with this much sugar is thick and sticks to the base of the pot, where it can scorch. Stirring occasionally keeps the bottom from burning and spreads the heat evenly as the mixture thickens.

Swap the pineapple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rhubarb, sugar, lemon, orange, meat, almond):

Vanillafits better
Limefits better
Figfits better
Pineapplethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rhubarb, sugar, lemon, orange, meat, almond. 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.

Orange Bundt Cake349 recipes

Lemon Cake228 recipes

Rhubarb Pie152 recipes

Lemon Ice147 recipes

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Pineapple Conserve