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 ↓
Pine-apple Syrup
Ingredients
Directions
Make the juice
Combine the pineapple and water in a pot.
Cover and boil until the pineapple is soft.
Strain the mixture to extract the juice.
Make the syrup
In a separate pot, combine 1 pint of the juice with 1 pint of sugar.
Boil for about 10 minutes.
Bottle and cork the syrup.
Serve
Serve 3 tablespoons of syrup in a glass of ice water.
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
- Supplies the juice and the tart, fruity flavor of the syrup.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and body as it dissolves into the juice and thickens it.
The step that matters
Boiling the juice and sugar. Boiling evaporates water so the juice and sugar concentrate into a syrup. Too short a boil leaves the syrup thin and watery, while a long boil makes it overly thick and can darken its flavor as the sugar caramelizes.
“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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