Skip to main content

Creamy Fruit Salad

A creamy salad that’s full of fruit and flavor. Quick and easy to put together, this is a winner for any meal or occasion.

Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Cream cheese and mandarin orange work together. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and 21 recipes mention both. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 6
Prep15 min

Ingredients

Contains: milk, tree nuts (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. Let the cream cheese soften at room temperature, then beat it in a large bowl until smooth and creamy.

  2. Fold the thawed whipped topping into the softened cream cheese until evenly combined and fluffy.

  3. Drain the fruit cocktail and mandarin orange slices well in a colander, pressing gently to remove excess juice.

  4. Gently fold the drained fruit cocktail and mandarin orange slices into the cream cheese mixture until evenly coated.

  5. If using, sprinkle the chopped pecans over the top or fold them in (optional).

  6. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for at least 1 hour so the salad sets and chills before serving.

By tastykitchen. 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. Cream cheese + mandarin orangetop 13% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together21 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Cream cheese + pecanstop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together465 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  3. Mandarin orange + pecanstop 9% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together30 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the pecans

The recipe marks pecans as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream cheese, mandarin orange):

  1. Walnutabout as good a flavor fit
  2. Pecansthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream cheese, mandarin orange. 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).