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Dessert

Fruit Salad

A fruit salad with grapes, cherries, pineapple, apples, walnuts, raisins, orange, topped with an egg-based dressing and whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Grape and apple match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,659 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Fruit Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit

  1. Combine grapes, cherries, pineapple, apples, walnuts, raisins, and orange in a bowl.

Make the dressing

  1. Beat eggs, sugar, mustard, cream, lemon juice, and salt together in a separate bowl.

  2. Cook the egg mixture in a double boiler until thickened, then let it cool.

  3. Fold the whipped cream into the cooled mixture gently.

Combine

  1. Pour the dressing over the fruit mixture and toss to combine.

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. Grape + appletop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,659 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  2. Grape + pineappletop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together709 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

  3. Pineapple + appletop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together530 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  4. Pineapple + orangetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,664 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  5. Grape + orangetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,771 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Thicken when cooked gently, giving the dressing a custard-like body that coats the fruit.
Whipped cream
Adds lightness and a creamy texture to the cooled dressing.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the sweetness of the fruit and dressing.
Sugar
Sweetens the dressing and balances the acidity of the lemon juice.
Walnuts
Add crunch and a nutty flavour that contrasts with the soft fruit.

The step that matters

Cook the egg mixture until thickened. Eggs thicken as their proteins set with gentle heat. Heating too fast or too long can scramble them, leaving lumps. A double boiler keeps the heat gentle and even, so the dressing thickens smoothly before cooling.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (grape, pineapple, apple, walnut, orange, egg, sugar):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Pearfits better
  3. Vanillafits better
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against grape, pineapple, apple, walnut, orange, egg, 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 fruit salad recipes

Dressing 41Ambrosia 24Pineapple 21Grape 15Frozen 10Mixed 8 See all 267 →

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