Why it works: Banana and sherry work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 117 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓
Banana Ice Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Make the banana base
Peel the bananas and strain them through a puree strainer.
Add the lemon juice and sherry wine to the banana puree.
Mix and freeze
Mix this mixture with Philadelphia ice cream.
Freeze until firm.
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 + sherrytop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together117 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
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Wine + lemontop 13% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,157 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Banana + winetop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together244 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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Banana + lemontop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,134 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Sherry + lemontop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,273 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Bananas
- Pureed, they supply the main banana flavor and a naturally sweet, creamy body.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and helps slow browning of the banana puree.
- Sherry wine
- Adds aroma and flavor, and its alcohol keeps the frozen texture softer.
- Philadelphia ice cream
- Provides fat and milk solids that give the dessert a rich, creamy base.
The step that matters
Freeze until firm.. Alcohol from the sherry and sugars in the banana and ice cream lower the freezing point, so the mixture sets more slowly and can stay softer than plain ice cream. Freezing until fully firm helps it hold a scoopable texture.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (banana, sherry, wine, cream):
- Strawberryfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Pineapplefits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against banana, sherry, wine, cream. 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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