Name: Rhubarb and Pineapple
Ingredients: equal quantities of rhubarb and pineapple; ½ the quantity of sugar

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 and Pineapple

Ingredients

equal quantities of rhubarb and pineapple
½ the quantity of sugar

Directions

Slice the pineapple very thin and in small pieces, removing the core.
Add half the quantity of sugar to the pineapple and simmer slowly until tender.
Peel the rhubarb and cut it into small pieces.
Add an equal quantity of sugar to the rhubarb and allow it to stand overnight.
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.

Rhubarb + pineappletop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together56 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
Rhubarb + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,852 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Pineapple + sugartop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,841 recipes

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