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Dessert

Fruit Salad

Fruit salad made with apples, almonds, celery, whipped cream, and cooked salad dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,155 recipes. Both carry 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol, which smells clove, smoky. The science ↓

Fruit Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel, core, and chop the apples.

  2. Blanch and chop the almonds.

  3. Chop the celery.

Assemble and serve

  1. Mix equal parts of apples, almonds, and celery with the cooked salad dressing.

  2. Just before serving, stir in 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 their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Apple + celerytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,155 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

  2. Almond + celerytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together485 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  3. Apple + almondtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,025 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Almond + creamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,130 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  5. Celery + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,863 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Apples
Provide the bulk of the salad and a crisp, juicy texture.
Almonds
Add crunch and a nutty flavor.
Celery
Adds fresh, crisp crunch that contrasts with the softer fruit.
Whipped cream
Lightens the salad and adds creamy richness.
Cooked salad dressing
Moistens the fruit and adds tangy sweetness that binds the mixture.

The step that matters

Stir in the whipped cream just before serving. Whipped cream is a foam of trapped air held by fat and protein. Stirring it in early, or over-mixing it, deflates the foam and makes the salad heavy and watery, so it should be folded in gently at the last moment.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (almond, celery, cream):

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Lemonfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against almond, celery, cream. 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.

More fruit salad recipes

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

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