Name: Tropical California Apricot Salad
Ingredients: 2 cups pitted and sliced fresh apricots (about 6 to 8); 1 1/2 cups stemmed and halved fresh strawberries (a little more than half of 1 pint basket); 1 1/2 cups pared and sliced kiwifruit (about 3); 1/4 cup apricot nectar; 1/4 cup coconut flakes, lightly toasted; 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh mint or; 1 teaspoon dried mint, crumbled

Why it works: Kiwifruit and mint work together. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 30 recipes mention both. Both carry myrcene, which smells balsamic, herbaceous. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

2 cups pitted and sliced fresh apricots (about 6 to 8)
1 1/2 cups stemmed and halved fresh strawberries (a little more than half of 1 pint basket)
1 1/2 cups pared and sliced kiwifruit (about 3)
1/4 cup apricot nectar
1/4 cup coconut flakes, lightly toasted
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh mint or
1 teaspoon dried mint, crumbled

Directions

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl, then toss and chill.
Serve as a salad, or arrange fruit on wooden skewers for fresh fruit kabobs.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

This recipe comes from the Recipes Wiki on Fandom and is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Our formatting and summaries are shared under the same licence.

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

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.

Kiwifruit + minttop 3% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together30 recipes

Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).
Kiwifruit + coconuttop 3% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together35 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).
Apricot + kiwifruittop 5% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together13 recipes

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

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together100 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Apricot + minttop 9% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together73 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Apricots: Provide the main sweetness and soft juicy body of the salad.
Strawberries: Add sweetness, bright fruity aroma, and juicy moisture.
Kiwifruit: Adds tartness that balances the sweet apricots and strawberries.
Apricot nectar: Adds moisture and extra apricot flavor to the fruit.
Coconut flakes: Add a crisp, chewy texture and a toasted, nutty aroma.
Fresh mint: Adds a cool, fresh herbal aroma that lifts the fruit.

Flavor stand-ins for the mint

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apricot, kiwifruit, coconut):

Gingerbetter flavor fit
Corianderbetter flavor fit
Peppermintabout as good a flavor fit
Mintthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apricot, kiwifruit, coconut. 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.