Name: Pineapple Salad
Ingredients: 2 ripe pineapples; ½ pint white sugar syrup; 1 tablespoon brandy; 1 tablespoon curaçao

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 ↓

Pineapple Salad

Ingredients

2 ripe pineapples
½ pint white sugar syrup
1 tablespoon brandy
1 tablespoon curaçao

Directions

Prepare the fruit

Peel the pineapples and remove the eyes.
Shred the fruit, discarding the core.
Place the shredded fruit in a compote dish.

Dress and serve

Mix the sugar syrup, brandy, and curaçao together.
Pour the mixture over the fruit and serve.

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 + brandytop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together298 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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).
Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together11,939 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Sugar and brandy barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,939 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

Pineapples: Provide the fruit base and most of the salad's bulk and juice.
White sugar syrup: Adds sweetness and moisture that soaks into the shredded fruit.
Brandy: Adds a warm, aromatic note to the syrup.
Curaçao: Adds orange-citrus aroma and a touch of sweetness to the syrup.