Why it works: Orange and grapefruit match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 233 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓
Fruit Salad
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Cut up the green grapes, oranges, pineapples, grapefruit, maraschino cherries, and candied cherries.
Combine and serve
Mix all the fruits together and serve with sherry.
Frozen version
For a frozen version, sweeten the grapes and pineapples, freeze them, and serve with plenty of sherry.
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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Orange + grapefruittop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together233 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Grape + pineappletop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together709 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).
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Orange + pineappletop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,664 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
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Pineapple + grapefruittop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together95 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
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Grape + orangetop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,771 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Green grapes
- Add juicy texture and natural sweetness to the salad.
- Oranges
- Add bright, tangy juice and citrus aroma.
- Pineapples
- Add juiciness and a sweet, tangy flavour.
- Grapefruit
- Adds bitter-tart citrus flavour that balances the sweet fruit.
- Sherry
- Adds aroma and flavour to the fruit.
Swap the grapefruit
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (grape, orange, pineapple, sherry):
- Applefits better
- Figfits better
- Apricotfits better
- Grapefruitthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against grape, orange, pineapple, sherry. 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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