Skip to main content
Dessert

Pickled Pineapple

A pineapple preserved in a sweet vinegar syrup with cloves and peppercorns.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Pineapple and clove work together. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 279 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Pickled Pineapple

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Pare, core, and cut the pineapple into small pieces.

  2. Combine vinegar, brown sugar, cloves, and peppercorns in a pot.

  3. Boil the mixture for a few minutes.

Cook the fruit

  1. Add the pineapple to the pot.

  2. Boil until the fruit turns golden yellow.

  3. If the syrup is not rich, boil it down.

  4. Pour the syrup over the fruit.

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.

  1. Pineapple + clovetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together279 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Pineapple + vinegartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together411 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  3. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Vinegar + clovetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,386 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. 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
Provides the fruit that softens and turns golden as it cooks in the syrup.
Brown sugar
Sweetens the syrup and thickens it as it boils down, giving a rich flavour.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the sweetness and preserves the fruit.

The step that matters

Boiling until the fruit turns golden yellow. Cooking until the sugar and fruit caramelise lightly builds colour and depth, while overcooking can make the pineapple mushy. Checking the syrup's richness before pouring it over the fruit helps it set well.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pineapple, vinegar, sugar):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Peppermintfits better
  3. Gingerfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pineapple, vinegar, sugar. 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.

You might also like

Pineapple SherbetPineapple Sherbet116 recipesPineapple PuddingPineapple Pudding72 recipesPineapple CreamPineapple Cream58 recipesClove CakeClove Cake53 recipes