Name: Fruit Salad
Ingredients: 1 orange, diced; 1 banana, sliced; 1 cup pineapple, diced; 1 cup white grapes, peeled; Lettuce cups; Cooked mayonnaise dressing, sweetened; Cherries for garnish

Why it works: Banana and pineapple match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 733 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓

Fruit Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Make the salad

Mix equal parts of diced orange, sliced banana, diced pineapple, and peeled white grapes.
Serve the fruit mixture in lettuce cups.

Dress and garnish

Top with sweetened cooked mayonnaise dressing.
Garnish with cherries.

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

Banana + pineappletop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together733 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
Pineapple + grapetop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together709 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).
Banana + grapetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together496 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Orange + pineappletop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,664 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,771 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Orange: Adds bright citrus flavor and juiciness to the fruit mixture.
Banana: Contributes soft texture and natural sweetness to the salad.
Pineapple: Adds tangy sweetness and juicy texture to the fruit mix.
White grapes: Add mild sweetness and crisp, juicy bites to the salad.
Cooked mayonnaise dressing: Adds creamy richness and fat that coats the fruit.