Why it works: Sugar and pineapple 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
Directions
Prepare
Peel and slice the pineapple.
Make the syrup
In a pot, combine 2½ pounds of sugar with nearly 3 pints of water to make a syrup.
Boil the syrup for 5 minutes, then skim or strain it.
Cook and can
Add the sliced pineapple to the syrup and let it boil.
Prepare hot cans, then fill them with the hot pineapple and syrup, sealing them immediately.
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.
-
Sugar + pineappletop 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
- Granulated sugar
- Sweetens the pineapple and, with water, forms the syrup that packs the fruit.
- Fresh pineapple
- Provides the fruit that is cooked and packed in syrup.
The step that matters
Sealing the hot cans immediately. Filling with hot pineapple and syrup and sealing right away keeps the jars hot, which helps drive air out of the headspace and supports a vacuum seal as contents cool. Delay lets the contents cool and weakens the seal.
“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.
You might also like
The 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.
Green Corn Pudding64 recipes
Cornmeal mush12 recipes