Name: Pineapple Lemonade
Ingredients: 1 pint water; 1 quart ice water; 1 cup sugar; 1 can grated pineapple; Juice of 3 lemons

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 Lemonade

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

Boil water and sugar for 10 minutes to make syrup.

Combine and strain

Add grated pineapple and lemon juice to the syrup.
Cool the mixture, then strain it.

Serve

Dilute with ice water to taste.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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).
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).

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

Sugar: Dissolves into the boiled water to form a syrup that sweetens the drink.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and balances the sweetness.
Grated pineapple: Contributes fruit flavor and body to the lemonade.