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Dessert

Fruit Salad

A mixed fruit salad with apples, oranges, bananas, pineapple, dates, candied cherries, walnuts, optional coconut, served with dressing and whipped cream.

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

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit

  1. Dice the apples, oranges, and pineapple.

  2. Slice the bananas and dates.

Assemble and serve

  1. Combine all the fruits in a bowl.

  2. Add chopped black walnuts and coconut if desired.

  3. Serve with salad dressing and a dollop of whipped cream.

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. Apple + bananatop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together435 recipes

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

  3. Banana + coconuttop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together549 recipes

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

  4. Pineapple + coconuttop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together651 recipes

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

  5. Apple + pineappletop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together530 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Apples
Add firm texture and a tart, crisp bite that balances the sweeter fruits.
Bananas
Add sweetness and a soft, creamy texture to the mixed fruit.
Oranges
Add juicy acidity and bright citrus flavour.
Pineapple
Adds sweet-tart flavour and juiciness.
Dates
Add concentrated sweetness and a chewy texture.
Whipped cream
Adds richness and a light, creamy fat layer that softens the tart fruit.

The step that matters

Combining the sliced bananas and apples. Cut apple and banana flesh oxidises when exposed to air, turning brown through enzymatic browning. Combining them with the other fruit close to serving keeps the salad looking fresh.

Swap the coconut

The recipe marks coconut as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, orange, banana, pineapple, dates, walnut, meat):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Pearfits about as well
  3. Vanillafits about as well
  4. Coconutthe original

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