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No Cook Banana Pudding Base

"Decided to post this as I tried the 2 most popular banana puddings on the site, and didn't much care for either. So I combined them and was satisfied with the taste. A banana pudding base with cream cheese, condensed milk, whipped topping, and sour cream. Serve as you want with fresh bananas, whipped topping, and vanilla wafers."

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Why it works: Vanilla and banana match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 1,430 recipes mention both. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓

The recipe

8 servings
Prep15 min

Ingredients

Contains: milk (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.

  1. Beat the cream cheese in a large bowl with an electric mixer until smooth, about 2 minutes.

  2. Add the sweetened condensed milk and beat until fully combined and smooth, about 1 minute.

  3. In a separate bowl, whisk the cold whole milk with both the vanilla and banana instant pudding mixes for 2 minutes until it begins to thicken.

  4. Let the pudding stand for 5 minutes so it sets further.

  5. Gradually beat the thickened pudding into the cream cheese mixture until smooth.

  6. Fold in the sour cream until evenly blended.

  7. Gently fold in the thawed whipped topping until no streaks remain.

  8. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, until chilled and firm enough to spoon, before serving.

By allrecipes. Recipe from Open Recipes.

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.

  1. Vanilla + bananatop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  2. Vanilla + milktop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together19,175 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  3. Cream cheese + bananatop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together134 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl pentanoate (yeast, fruit).

  4. Banana + milktop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,464 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  5. Cream cheese + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,934 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the vanilla

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream cheese, condensed milk, banana, milk, cream):

  1. Vanillathe original
  2. Strawberryabout as good a flavor fit
  3. Coconutabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against cream cheese, condensed milk, banana, milk, cream. 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).