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Dessert

Cuban Bananas

A baked banana dessert served with sponge cake.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Ramblers' club, Minneapolis. [from old catalog] · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 24 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Cuban Bananas

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel and cut six large ripe bananas in halves lengthwise.

  2. Butter a baking dish well.

  3. Lay the bananas in the dish to cover the bottom without crowding.

Layer and bake

  1. Sprinkle the bananas with sugar, cinnamon, and bits of jelly.

  2. Add another layer of bananas, sprinkle as before, and add one tablespoon of butter.

  3. Pour one cup of cream over the bananas.

  4. Bake for 20 minutes in a hot oven.

Serve

  1. Serve with sponge cake.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

1310Calories
37 gProtein
22 gFat
252 gCarbs

Counts 13 of 14 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 13 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Potato1 medium (173g) baked161
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Banana1 medium (118g)105
Apple1 medium (182g)95
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Grape1/2 cup (76g)62
Orange1 medium (131g)62
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Carrot1 medium (61g)25
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Cinnamon1 tsp ground (2.6g)6
Waternot in our table0

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

By Ramblers' club, Minneapolis. [from old catalog]. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures. See the original page.

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.

  1. Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Carrot + potatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,107 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  3. Milk + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  4. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Milk + appletop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,104 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

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

What each ingredient does

Bananas
Provide the main body and sweetness of the dish as they soften and caramelise in the oven.
Cream
Adds richness and moisture, pooling around the bananas as they bake.
Sugar
Sweetens the bananas and helps them brown at the surface as they bake.
Butter (in the method)
Adds fat and richness, and keeps the dish from sticking to the baking dish.

The step that matters

Bake for 20 minutes in a hot oven. Too little heat or time leaves the bananas watery and pale, while too much dries the cream and scorches the sugar. Watching the surface helps the bananas turn tender and lightly browned.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, sugar, milk, carrot, potato, raisin, flour):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, sugar, milk, carrot, potato, raisin, flour. 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.

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