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Dessert

Fruit and Nut Medley

A fruit salad of bananas, oranges, pineapple, dates, topped with pecan halves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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 and Nut Medley

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Slice the bananas.

  2. Cut the oranges and pineapple into small pieces.

  3. Remove the stones from the dates.

Assemble

  1. Layer the fruits in a dish until filled.

  2. Top with pecan halves.

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. Banana + pineappletop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together733 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  2. Dates + pecanstop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together88 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Orange + pineappletop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,664 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  4. Banana + orangetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,118 recipes

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

  5. Banana + datestop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together61 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Bananas
Provide soft sweetness and a creamy texture when sliced into the salad.
Oranges
Add acidity and juicy freshness that brightens the sweet fruits.
Pineapple
Adds tropical sweetness and juicy texture to the layers.
Dates
Contribute concentrated sweetness and a chewy texture.
Pecans
Add crunch and a toasty, buttery flavour that contrasts the soft fruit.

Swap the pecans

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

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Walnutfits about as well
  3. Chestnutfits about as well
  4. Pecansthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against banana, orange, pineapple, dates. 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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