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Dessert

Pineapple Marmalade

A sweet preserve made from grated pineapple, sugar, lemon juice, and lemon rind, boiled until clear.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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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 Marmalade

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Grate the pineapples.

Make the marmalade

  1. For each pound of grated pineapple, add ¾ pound of loaf sugar, the juice of 2 lemons, and the grated rind of ½ lemon.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil quickly.

  3. Cook until clear, about 1 hour, skimming often.

  4. Once done, seal in small jars.

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. Pineapple + lemontop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,964 recipes

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

  2. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  3. Pineapple + sugartop 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

Pineapples
Provide the fruit bulk and pectin-free pulp that forms the marmalade's body as it cooks down.
Loaf sugar
Sweetens and, as it dissolves and concentrates, helps the mixture thicken and set.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and supports setting.
Lemon rind
Contributes aromatic citrus oils that add fragrance and bitterness.

The step that matters

Skimming often during the cook. Foam and scum rise to the surface as the fruit and sugar boil. Removing them keeps the marmalade clear and gives it a clean flavour instead of a cloudy, bitter one.

Swap the pineapple

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

  1. Orangefits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Vanillafits better
  4. Pineapplethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, lemon. 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.

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