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 Gelatine
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Soak the gelatine in the cold water.
Boil the sugar and boiling water together.
Add the soaked gelatine and mix well.
Set and serve
Pour the mixture into a mold and refrigerate until set.
Serve chilled with cream.
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.
-
Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
-
Sugar + bananatop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,102 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
-
Banana + creamtop 23% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,180 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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 gel as it cools.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps balance the set gel's flavour.
- Chinese bananas
- Provide the main flavour and add body and moisture to the gelatin.
The step that matters
Add the soaked gelatine and mix well. Gelatine must be fully dissolved in the hot sugar syrup, otherwise it will not set evenly and may leave lumps or soft spots in the finished gelatin.
Swap the banana
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, cream):
- Vanillafits better
- Strawberryfits better
- Raspberryfits better
- Bananathe original
Fit is the average pairing score against 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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