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Salad

Banana Salad

A simple salad of sliced bananas dressed with oil, vinegar, sugar, pepper, and sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Vinegar and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,814 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Banana Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dressing

  1. In a bowl, gradually mix 2 teaspoons of oil with 2 teaspoons of vinegar until well combined. Add 1 teaspoon of sugar and mix again.

Assemble and serve

  1. Peel and slice the bananas into medium-thick rounds.

  2. Place the banana slices in a dish and pour the dressing over them.

  3. Sprinkle with pepper and coarse sea salt.

  4. Serve immediately.

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. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Banana + peppertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together483 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  3. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Vinegar + bananatop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together273 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  5. Sugar + bananatop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,102 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

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

What each ingredient does

Bananas
Provide the main body and natural sweetness of the salad.
Oil
Adds fat and a smooth mouthfeel to the dressing.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the sweetness.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that offsets the acidity of the vinegar.

Swap the banana

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, sugar, pepper):

  1. Lemonfits better
  2. Cherryfits better
  3. Limefits better
  4. Bananathe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, sugar, pepper. 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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