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Dessert

Fruit Salad

A fruit salad with oranges, pineapple, Malaga grapes, walnuts, and a sweet‑vinegar dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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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

Directions

Make the dressing

  1. Combine egg yolks, water, sugar, and vinegar in a saucepan.

  2. Cook over low heat until thick.

  3. Remove from heat and stir in the butter.

  4. Let the mixture cool.

  5. Fold in the whipped cream.

Dress and serve

  1. Pour the dressing over the fruit.

  2. Let it sit for at least 30 minutes before serving.

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 + grapetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together709 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  3. Orange + grapetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,771 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Grape + walnuttop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,427 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

  5. Orange + walnuttop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,058 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Thicken the dressing as they cook and set into a smooth, custard-like base.
Whipped cream
Adds lightness and a soft, creamy texture to the cooled dressing.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the cooked dressing.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that balances the sugar and cuts the richness of the dressing.
Sugar
Sweetens the dressing and helps balance the tang of the vinegar.

The step that matters

Cook the dressing over low heat until thick. Egg yolks thicken and can scramble if overheated, so gentle low heat and constant attention keep the dressing smooth rather than grainy.

Swap the walnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (orange, pineapple, grape, egg, sugar, butter, vinegar):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Walnutthe original
  3. Pecansfits less well
  4. Chestnutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against orange, pineapple, grape, egg, sugar, butter, vinegar. 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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