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Rhubarb Andspineapple

A sweet dish of rhubarb and pineapple cooked with sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
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Why it works: Rhubarb and pineapple share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 56 recipes. Both carry methyl cinnamate, which smells strawberry. The science ↓

Rhubarb Andspineapple

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pineapple

  1. Slice the pineapple very thin and remove the core.

  2. Add half the sugar to the pineapple.

  3. Simmer slowly until tender.

Prepare the rhubarb

  1. Peel the rhubarb and cut it into small pieces.

  2. Add an equal quantity of sugar to the rhubarb.

  3. Let it stand overnight.

Cook

  1. Boil the rhubarb and pineapple together for twenty minutes.

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.

  1. Rhubarb + pineappletop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together56 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  2. Rhubarb + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,852 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  3. Pineapple + sugartop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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

Rhubarb
Adds sharp acidity that balances the sweetness and softens into the fruit.
Pineapple
Adds sweet, tropical flavour and tender pieces of fruit when simmered.
Sugar
Sweetens the fruit and draws out juice during the overnight rest.

The step that matters

Simmer the pineapple slowly until tender. Pineapple must soften fully before it is combined with the rhubarb, because it needs more gentle cooking than rhubarb. Slow simmering softens the fibres evenly without breaking the thin slices apart.

Swap the pineapple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rhubarb, sugar):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Quincefits better
  4. Pineapplethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rhubarb, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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.

More rhubarb and pineapple recipes

Jam 3

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