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 Dessert
Ingredients
Directions
Combine the bananas, oranges, grapes, pears, and shredded pineapple in a bowl.
Pour enough grape juice over the fruit to moisten it well.
Toss gently to mix all ingredients.
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.
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Banana + pineappletop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together733 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
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Banana + peartop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together87 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
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Pear + pineappletop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together169 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
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Grape + pineappletop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together709 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).
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Grape + peartop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together252 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Bananas
- Add sweetness and a soft, creamy texture to the salad.
- Oranges
- Add bright acidity and juiciness that balances the sweetness.
- Pears
- Add mild sweetness and a juicy, tender bite.
- Shredded pineapple
- Adds sweetness and tangy acidity, along with extra juice.
- White grapes
- Add juiciness and sweetness in each bite.
- Grape juice
- Moistens the fruit and adds sweetness and grape flavour.
Swap the orange
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (banana, grape, pear, pineapple):
- Applefits better
- Plumfits better
- Apricotfits better
- Orangethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against banana, grape, pear, pineapple. 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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