Why it works: Lemon and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓
Fruit Salad
Ingredients
Directions
Dissolve the gelatine in cold water.
Add hot water, sugar, lemon juice, orange juice, grated pineapple, and sliced bananas.
Mix well and set on ice to harden.
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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Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together10,634 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Pineapple + bananatop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together733 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
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Orange + pineappletop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,664 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
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Orange + bananatop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,118 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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Lemon + pineappletop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,964 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Gelatine
- Sets the liquid into a firm, sliceable structure as it cools.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the acidity of the citrus juices.
- Bananas
- Add body, soft texture and natural sweetness to the salad.
- Pineapple
- Adds fruity flavour and tartness to the set mixture.
The step that matters
Dissolve the gelatine in cold water. Gelatine must be fully hydrated and dissolved before the hot liquid is added. If it clumps or stays grainy, it will not set evenly and the salad may be patchy or soft.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, orange, pineapple, banana):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Mangofits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, orange, pineapple, banana. 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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