Name: Banana Salad
Ingredients: 2 bananas; ½ cup finely chopped peanuts; Lettuce leaves; Salad dressing

Why it works: Peanut and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 170 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Banana Salad

Ingredients

2 bananas
½ cup finely chopped peanuts
Lettuce leaves
Salad dressing

Directions

Prepare the bananas

Peel and slice the bananas lengthwise.
Roll the banana slices in finely chopped peanuts.

Assemble and dress

Lay the coated bananas on lettuce leaves.
Pour salad dressing over each leaf.

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.

Peanut + lettucetop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together170 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Banana + peanuttop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together308 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Banana + lettucetop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together198 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

What each ingredient does

Bananas: Provide natural sweetness and a soft, creamy texture against the crisp leaves.
Peanuts: Add crunch and a nutty flavour that contrasts with the soft banana.
Lettuce leaves: Give a crisp, cool base that holds the bananas.
Salad dressing: Adds moisture and flavour that coats the bananas and leaves.