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Cherry Coke Salad

A tangy gelatin salad with Coke and pineapple.

By tastykitchen · From Open Recipes · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cherry and pineapple match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 537 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 6
Prep20 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. Drain the cherries and pineapple, reserving the cherry juice. Set the cherries and pineapple aside.

  2. Empty the cherry gelatin mix into a heatproof bowl. Pour in boiling water and stir until fully dissolved.

  3. Stir in the reserved cherry juice and the Coca-Cola (diet is fine). Refrigerate about 30 to 40 minutes, until thickened like syrup but not set.

  4. Beat the softened cream cheese in a large bowl until smooth. Gradually whisk in the thickened gelatin mixture until no lumps remain.

  5. Fold in the drained cherries, crushed pineapple and chopped pecans or walnuts until evenly distributed.

  6. Pour into a serving dish or mold and refrigerate at least 3 to 4 hours, until firm. Cut into portions to serve.

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. Cherry + pineappletop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together537 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

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

  3. Cream cheese + pineappletop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together250 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  4. Cherry + pecanstop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together249 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  5. Pineapple + pecanstop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together294 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the pecans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cherry, gelatin, cream cheese, pineapple):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cherry, gelatin, cream cheese, pineapple. 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).