Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Banana Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the jello
Pour boiling water over the jello and let it cool.
Make the banana mixture
Pass the bananas through a ricer and mix with sugar.
Combine and set
Whip the cream and blend all ingredients together.
When the mixture is lukewarm, set it on ice in a fancy mold.
Turn out when set and serve with lady fingers.
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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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Lemon + bananatop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,134 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Banana + sugartop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,102 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
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Banana + creamtop 23% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,180 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Lemon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Lemon jello
- Gelatin sets the mixture so it holds its shape when turned out of the mold.
- Bananas
- Provide the main flavor and a smooth, pulpy body once passed through a ricer.
- Cream
- Whipped, it adds lightness and richness to the set dessert.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the bananas and balances their natural tartness.
The step that matters
Cool the jello to lukewarm before combining. Gelatin begins to set as it cools, so if the jello is too cold or already firm, it will form lumps instead of blending smoothly into the banana and cream. Waiting until the mixture is lukewarm keeps it fluid enough to combine evenly before chilling.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (banana, sugar, cream):
- Vanillafits better
- Strawberryfits better
- Pineapplefits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against banana, sugar, 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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