Name: To Can Pineapple
Ingredients: well-ripened Indian river pineapples; water; sugar (to taste); syrup (for cooking)

Why it works: Sugar and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

To Can Pineapple

Ingredients

well-ripened Indian river pineapples
water
sugar (to taste)
syrup (for cooking)

Directions

Peel the rough bark from the pineapples, then peel again below the eyes.
Grind the peeled part and add twice its bulk in water.
Catch the juice from the grinder and combine it with the mixture.
Stew well, then strain and sweeten to taste.
Slice the pineapples thin and core them.
Cook the slices in syrup, then seal in jars.
Alternatively, shred into half-inch bits and can for fritters and ices.

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.

Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,842 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Pineapple + syruptop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together568 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Pineapple + sugartop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,841 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).