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Banana Salad

A salad of sliced bananas and lettuce topped with nuts and a creamy mustard dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Lettuce and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,356 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Banana Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the salad

  1. Slice the bananas and arrange them on lettuce leaves.

  2. Add a few nuts and optional thinly sliced oranges (1 orange to 3 or 4 bananas).

Make the dressing

  1. For the dressing, mix salt, mustard, butter, sugar, cream, cornstarch, egg yolks, and vinegar in a double boiler.

  2. Stir over heat until it begins to thicken, then strain.

  3. If cream is omitted, the dressing can be stored in a cool place.

Serve

  1. When ready to use, thin the dressing with ½ cup 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. Lettuce + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,356 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Lettuce + nutstop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together174 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  5. 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

Egg yolks
Thicken the dressing as they set with gentle heat, adding richness and body.
Cornstarch
Helps the dressing thicken smoothly and stay stable when heated.
Vinegar
Adds the sharp acidity that balances the sweetness and richness of the dressing.
Butter
Adds fat for a rich, smooth mouthfeel in the dressing.
Whipped cream
Lightens the thickened dressing, adding airy texture and softness.

The step that matters

Stir over heat until it begins to thicken. Egg yolks can scramble if overheated, and the starch needs gentle heat to thicken smoothly. A double boiler keeps the heat moderate, and stirring prevents lumps and curdling.

Swap the nuts

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (banana, lettuce, mustard, butter, sugar, cream, egg):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Chestnutfits better
  3. Hazelnutfits better
  4. Nutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against banana, lettuce, mustard, butter, sugar, cream, egg. 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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