Name: Fruit Salad
Ingredients: 3 oranges, cut up and drained; 1 pint pineapple, canned or fresh, drained; 1 pound Malaga grapes, halved and seeds removed; 1 pound English walnuts, shelled; Fruit Salad dressing

Why it works: Pineapple and grape match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 709 recipes. Both carry 1-hexanal, which smells fruit. The science ↓

Fruit Salad

Ingredients

3 oranges, cut up and drained
1 pint pineapple, canned or fresh, drained
1 pound Malaga grapes, halved and seeds removed
1 pound English walnuts, shelled
Fruit Salad dressing

Directions

Cut up and drain the oranges in a sieve.
Drain the pineapple if using canned.
Halve the Malaga grapes and remove the seeds.
Shell the English walnuts.
Combine all ingredients and use Fruit Salad dressing to serve.

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.

Pineapple + grapetop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together709 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).
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).
Grape + walnuttop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,427 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).
Orange + walnuttop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,058 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).