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Salad

Banana and Nut Salad

A salad of sliced bananas topped with nuts and a creamy dressing made from eggs, sugar, mustard, vinegar, butter, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,067 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Banana and Nut Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the bananas in half lengthwise.

  2. Cover the bananas with chopped nuts.

Make the dressing

  1. In a bowl, beat together the eggs, sugar, salt, mustard, vinegar, cold water, and melted butter.

  2. Cook the mixture over hot water until thickened.

  3. Let the dressing cool, then beat in the cream.

Serve

  1. Spoon the dressing over the bananas and nuts.

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. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  4. Banana + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,536 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Thicken the cooked dressing as they set over gentle heat, giving it body.
Butter
Adds richness and smooth mouthfeel to the dressing.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that balances the sweetness and richness of the dressing.
Cream
Mixed in after cooling to add softness and a lighter, creamier texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to balance the sharpness of the vinegar.

The step that matters

Cook the dressing over hot water until thickened. Egg proteins set as they heat, so cooking gently over hot water, rather than direct heat, helps the dressing thicken smoothly without curdling or scrambling. Stir constantly and stop once it coats a spoon.

Swap the nuts

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (banana, egg, sugar, mustard, vinegar, butter, cream):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Hazelnutfits better
  3. Chestnutfits better
  4. Nutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against banana, egg, sugar, mustard, vinegar, butter, 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.

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