Name: A Delicious Fruit Punch
Ingredients: 1 pint water; 1 pound sugar; grated yellow rind of 1 lemon; 2 bananas, sliced; 1 grated pineapple; ½ pound stoned cherries; juice of 6 lemons; 2 quarts Apollinaris (or sparkling water); 1 dozen strawberries

Why it works: Banana and pineapple match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 733 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓

A Delicious Fruit Punch

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

Boil water, sugar, and lemon rind for 5 minutes, then strain.

Combine the fruit

While hot, add sliced bananas, grated pineapple, and stoned cherries.
When ready to serve, add lemon juice.

Serve

Place a square block of ice in the center of a punch bowl.
Pour 2 quarts of Apollinaris over the ice, then add the fruit mixture.
Just before serving, mix in the strawberries.

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.

Banana + pineappletop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together733 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
Lemon + pineappletop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,964 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Lemon + bananatop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,134 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

Sugar: Dissolves into the boiled water to sweeten the punch base.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the sweetness and balances the fruit flavors.
Bananas: Add body and soft sweetness to the fruit mixture.
Strawberries: Add fresh aroma and fruity flavor added just before serving.
Apollinaris: Sparkling water that adds fizz and dilutes the punch base.