Why it works: Grape and melon work together. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 126 recipes. Both carry 2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, green. The science ↓
Tutti Frutti
Ingredients
Directions
If using brandy, begin with it; if not, proceed without.
Add equal weight of granulated sugar to the fruit.
Slice strawberries, oranges, and bananas, and add them along with a pineapple.
Cover the jar with several layers of cheesecloth and store in a dark place.
Stir occasionally as you add more fruit.
The mixture will be ready for use in about two months.
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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Grape + melontop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together126 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
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Brandy + grapetop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together711 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Brandy + melontop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together33 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Brandy + sugartop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together11,939 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Melon + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together796 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Brandy and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,939 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the melon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (brandy, grape, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Applefits better
- Apricotfits better
- Melonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against brandy, grape, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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