Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Fried Bananas
Ingredients
Directions
Slice the bananas and coat each slice in flour.
Heat oil or butter in a frying pan over medium heat.
Fry the banana slices until they are light brown.
Serve with fried bread or poached eggs, similar to bacon and eggs.
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.
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Banana + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,536 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
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Banana + flourtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,725 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
Swap the banana
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits better
- Bananathe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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