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Banana Dressing

A citrusy banana dressing made with lemon juice, sugar, bananas, and olive oil.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Olive M. Hulse · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Olive and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,922 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Banana Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Mix the juice of two lemons with half a cup of sugar.

  2. Mash two bananas and work into the pulp one tablespoonful of olive oil, then stir all together.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

285Calories
2 gProtein
14 gFat
43 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Banana1 medium (118g)105
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12

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

By Olive M. Hulse. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. Olive + lemontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,922 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Olive + bananatop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together797 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  3. Lemon + bananatop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,134 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + bananatop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,102 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Lemons
Their juice adds sharp acidity that brightens the sweetness of the dressing.
Sugar
Dissolves into the lemon juice to add sweetness and balance the acidity.
Bananas
Mashed into a pulp, they add body, moisture and natural sweetness.
Olive oil
Adds fat that gives the dressing a smoother, richer mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Working the olive oil into the banana pulp. Oil does not mix with the lemon juice and sugar on its own. Working it into the mashed banana helps it disperse as fine droplets, so the dressing stays smooth rather than separating into layers.

Swap the banana

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (olive, sugar, lemon):

  1. Orangefits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Blueberryfits better
  4. Bananathe original

Fit is the average pairing score against olive, sugar, lemon. 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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