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Dessert

Fruit Salad No. 1

A fruit salad made with pineapple, grapes, pecans, marshmallows, and a creamy citrus dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Orange and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 10,634 recipes mention both. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Fruit Salad No. 1

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit

  1. Cut up the pineapple, grapes, and marshmallows.

  2. Drain off the juice and combine it with the dressing ingredients.

Make the dressing and finish

  1. Mix the juice of the oranges and lemons with the beaten eggs, cornstarch, and sugar.

  2. Cook the mixture carefully in a double boiler until it thickens.

  3. When cold, add the whipped cream.

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.

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. Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together10,634 recipes

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

  2. Pineapple + grapetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together709 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

  3. Pineapple + orangetop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together1,664 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  4. Grape + orangetop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together1,771 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together43,450 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set and thicken the dressing as they cook, giving it body.
Cornstarch
Thickens the citrus mixture into a smooth, sliceable custard when heated.
Sugar
Sweetens the dressing and balances the sharpness of the citrus juice.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and cuts through its richness.
Cream
Adds lightness and richness to the cooled dressing through its whipped air and fat.

The step that matters

Cook the dressing carefully in a double boiler. Eggs can curdle and scramble if the mixture gets too hot, while cornstarch needs to reach a boil to reach full thickness. Gentle, steady heat with constant stirring gives a smooth custard.

Flavor stand-ins for the pecans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pineapple, grape, orange, egg, lemon, sugar, cream):

  1. Almondbetter flavor fit
  2. Pistachiobetter flavor fit
  3. Walnutbetter flavor fit
  4. Pecansthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pineapple, grape, orange, egg, lemon, sugar, cream. 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.

More fruit salad recipes

Dressing 41Ambrosia 24Pineapple 21Grape 15Frozen 10Mixed 8 See all 267 →

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