Name: Pineapple Sherbert
Ingredients: 1 pineapple, fresh or preserved; 2 quarts cold water; juice of 4 lemons; sugar to taste; ice

Why it works: Pineapple and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,964 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Pineapple Sherbert

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Cut the pineapple into small pieces and chop it coarsely.

Make the sherbet

Pour the cold water over the pineapple, add the lemon juice, and sweeten to taste.
Strain the mixture into a larger jug.

Serve

Just before serving, add a few pieces of ice.

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.

Pineapple + lemontop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,964 recipes

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

Smell alikelow

Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,841 recipes

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

Lemon and sugar 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

Pineapple: Provides the main fruit flavour and body of the drink.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the sweetness and balances the fruit.
Sugar: Adds sweetness to balance the tartness of the lemon and pineapple.