Why it works: Berry and cream cheese share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and 17 recipes mention both. Both carry ethyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓
The recipe
12 servingsIngredients
Contains: egg, milk, tree nuts (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.
Drain the crushed pineapple and the cranberry sauce, reserving both juices separately. Finely chop the cranberry sauce if it has large pieces, and chop the apple and walnuts.
Bring the 1 1/2 cups water to a boil. Pour it over the raspberry gelatin mix in a large bowl and stir for 2 minutes until fully dissolved.
Stir the reserved pineapple juice and reserved cranberry juice into the dissolved gelatin. Let it cool at room temperature for about 10 minutes.
In a separate bowl, beat the room-temperature cream cheese and mayonnaise until smooth and free of lumps.
Gradually whisk the cooled gelatin mixture into the cream cheese mixture until smooth.
Fold in the drained pineapple, drained cranberry sauce, chopped apple, walnuts, and 1 cup thawed whipped topping.
Pour the mixture into a 9x13-inch dish or a 12-cup mold. Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, until firm.
Just before serving, spread the extra 1/2 cup thawed whipped topping over the top. This topping is optional and can be left off or added to taste.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Berry + cream cheesetop 8% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together17 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
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Cranberry + appletop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together169 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
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Pineapple + appletop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together529 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
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Berry + cranberrytop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together68 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
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Cranberry + raspberrytop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together51 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl benzoate (fruity, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Flavor stand-ins for the raspberry
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pineapple, berry, cranberry, sauce, gelatin, cream cheese, apple):
- Strawberrybetter flavor fit
- Peachabout as good a flavor fit
- Vanillaabout as good a flavor fit
- Raspberrythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against pineapple, berry, cranberry, sauce, gelatin, cream cheese, apple. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
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