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Dessert

Marlboro House Ambrosia

A chilled fruit salad of pineapple, coconut, strawberries, oranges, bananas, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pineapple and banana 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 ↓

Marlboro House Ambrosia

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit

  1. Peel and slice the pineapple into rounds.

  2. Peel and slice the bananas lengthwise into strips.

  3. Divide the oranges into segments, removing all pith, and lay them in fine sugar.

  4. Peel the coconut and place it in ice water.

  5. Hull the strawberries and keep them cool.

Assemble and serve

  1. An hour before serving, prepare as many plates as needed.

  2. Place a slice of pineapple on each plate, sift sugar and a small amount of grated coconut over it.

  3. Build a nest with the banana strips, filling it with oranges and strawberries, heaping high.

  4. Sift more sugar and grate coconut over the top.

  5. Keep in a cool place until served.

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. Pineapple + bananatop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together733 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  2. Coconut + bananatop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together549 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  3. Pineapple + coconuttop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together651 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Pineapple + orangetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,664 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  5. Orange + bananatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,118 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Pineapple
Provides the sweet, juicy base slice that anchors each plate.
Bananas
Form the nest-like structure that holds the other fruit in place.
Oranges
Add bright acidity and juice that balance the sugar.
Strawberries
Add tartness and soft texture to the filling.
Coconut
Adds a fragrant aroma and a light, crisp texture on top.

The step that matters

Keep the fruit cool until serving. Cut fruit softens and loses texture and freshness as it warms. Chilling slows enzyme browning and keeps the strawberries and oranges firm and juicy.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pineapple, coconut, banana, sugar):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Mangofits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pineapple, coconut, banana, sugar. 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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