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 ↓
Pineapple Drops
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the pineapple
Bruise the pulp of the pineapple in a mortar and pass it through a coarse sieve.
Make the drops
Add enough cane sugar to form a stiff paste.
Boil the mixture in a sugar boiler.
Drop the mixture onto an oiled baking sheet.
Let it cool and then place it in a sieve in a warm area until dry.
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.
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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
- Pineapple
- Provides the main flavour and moisture that the sugar concentrates into the drops.
- Cane sugar
- Thickens the pulp into a stiff paste and sets into a firm, sweet candy when cooled.
The step that matters
Boil the mixture in a sugar boiler. Boiling drives off water and concentrates the sugar; if it is undercooked the drops stay soft and sticky, and if overcooked they harden too much.
“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.
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