Name: Florida Fruit Salad
Ingredients: 4 oranges; 3 bananas; 1 pint shredded pineapple or 1 quart strawberries; ½ pound blanched and grated almonds; lemon juice (from ½ glass); 2 tablespoons Maraschino or 4 tablespoons sherry or Madeira; crushed ice

Why it works: Orange and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 10,634 recipes mention both. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Florida Fruit Salad

Ingredients

4 oranges
3 bananas
1 pint shredded pineapple or 1 quart strawberries
½ pound blanched and grated almonds
lemon juice (from ½ glass)
2 tablespoons Maraschino or 4 tablespoons sherry or Madeira
crushed ice

Directions

Prepare

Peel and slice the oranges and bananas.

Assemble and chill

Layer the oranges, bananas, shredded pineapple or strawberries, and grated almonds in a serving dish.
Sweeten the fruit to taste.
Pour the lemon juice and Maraschino or sherry or Madeira over the top.
Chill in the refrigerator or a cold place until thoroughly chilled.

Serve

Serve with crushed ice on top.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together10,634 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Banana + pineappletop 1% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together733 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
Orange + pineappletop 6% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together1,664 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
Orange + almondtop 6% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together3,125 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Pineapple + sherrytop 7% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together228 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Oranges: Provide the main juicy fruit base and bright citrus flavour.
Bananas: Add soft body and mild sweetness to the salad.
Shredded pineapple or strawberries: Add tart-sweet fruit flavour and additional juiciness.
Grated almonds: Add nutty flavour and a slightly richer texture.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the fruit and balances sweetness.

Flavor stand-ins for the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (orange, banana, pineapple, almond, sherry):

Vanillabetter flavor fit
Figbetter flavor fit
Apricotbetter flavor fit
Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against orange, banana, pineapple, almond, sherry. 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).

“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.