Why it works: Sugar and pineapple are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,841 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Marmalade
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the pineapple
Peel the pineapples and remove any dark specks from the flesh.
Grate or finely dice the pineapples and pound them in a mortar.
Make the marmalade
Heat the pineapple pulp gently for 10 minutes.
Stir in 14 ounces of sugar for every pound of fruit.
Boil until the mixture thickens and becomes transparent, about 15 minutes for small quantities.
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.
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Sugar + pineappletop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Pineapples
- Provide the fruit pulp, flavour and the bulk of the marmalade.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the fruit and, as it dissolves and boils, helps the mixture thicken and set.
The step that matters
Boil until the mixture thickens and becomes transparent. Sugar must be fully dissolved and the mixture boiled long enough for pectin and sugar to concentrate and set. Stopping too early leaves it runny, while overcooking can make it stiff and sticky.
“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.
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