Name: Homemade Peanut Butter Shake
Ingredients: 125px|right; 1 cup vanilla-flavored, soy-based, nutritional supplement; 1 pint low-fat vanilla ice cream; 1 cup water; 1/4 cup ginger ale; 1 banana; 5 tbsp. peanut butter

Why it works: Vanilla and banana are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,430 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓

Homemade Peanut Butter Shake

Ingredients

Directions

Add all ingredients to a blender and mix thoroughly until smooth.
Refrigerate unused portion.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

331Calories

9 gProtein

20 gFat

33 gCarbs

Counts 5 of 6 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 5 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Peanut	1 oz (28g)	161
Banana	1 medium (118g)	105
Ice Cream	1 tbsp (15ml) heavy	51
Vanilla	1 tsp extract (4ml)	12
Ginger	1 tsp grated fresh (2g)	2
Water	not in our table	0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

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 their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Vanilla + bananatop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,430 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
Banana + peanuttop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together308 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Ginger + peanuttop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together524 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Vanilla + peanuttop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,176 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Peanut butter: Provides rich peanut flavor and body, thickening the shake with fat.
Vanilla ice cream: Adds sweetness, creaminess and chill, giving the shake its thick texture.
Banana: Adds natural sweetness and a smooth, thickening body when blended.
Soy-based nutritional supplement: Forms the liquid base that blends the other ingredients into a smooth shake.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vanilla, cream, banana, peanut, butter):

Cinnamonfits better
Nutmegfits better
Peppermintfits better
Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vanilla, cream, banana, peanut, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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.