Why it works: Banana and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,536 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓
Fried Bananas
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Select fruit that is not over-ripe.
Slice the bananas lengthwise.
Fry and serve
Melt the butter in a dish over medium heat until it begins to bubble.
Add the banana slices and fry until golden brown.
Serve with or without bacon.
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 + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,536 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Bananas
- Provide the sweet flavor and soft, creamy texture, and their sugars brown in the hot fat.
- Butter
- Conducts heat evenly across the dish and adds richness, while its milk solids help the bananas brown.
The step that matters
Add the bananas once the butter begins to bubble. The butter must be hot enough to sizzle when the slices go in. Hot fat sears the surface quickly, producing browning and a good crust. If the pan is too cool, the bananas soak up butter and soften rather than turn golden.
“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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