Name: Pineapple Cream Ice
Ingredients: 1½ pints cream or custard; sugar to taste; ½ pint grated pineapple; juice of ½ lemon; food coloring (optional)

Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Pineapple Cream Ice

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

Sweeten the cream or custard to taste.
Add the grated pineapple, lemon juice, and food coloring.
Mix in more sugar if needed.

Freeze

Freeze according to usual method.
If using a mold, a pineapple mold is preferred.

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.

Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Pineapple + lemontop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,964 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together53,532 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar + pineappletop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,841 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Cream + pineappletop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,574 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Cream or custard: Provides fat and richness, giving the ice cream a smooth, creamy texture.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and softens the frozen texture so it is easier to scoop.
Grated pineapple: Adds fruit flavor and moisture, with a tart, fresh taste.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the pineapple flavor and balances the sweetness.