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Dessert

Jello Dessert

A gelatin dessert made with strawberry jello, sugar, boiling water, and sliced oranges and bananas.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Strawberry and banana match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 421 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓

Jello Dessert

Ingredients

Directions

Make the jello

  1. Mix the jello and sugar in a bowl.

  2. Pour the boiling water over the mixture and stir until dissolved.

Add fruit and set

  1. Slice the oranges and bananas alternately and add them to the mixture.

  2. Set the bowl in a cool place to set.

  3. Serve in glass dishes.

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. Strawberry + bananatop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together421 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  2. Strawberry + orangetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together726 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Orange + bananatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,118 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

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

  5. Strawberry + sugartop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,060 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Strawberry jello
Gelatin sets the liquid into a firm, wobbly dessert once chilled.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps balance the tartness of the fruit.
Boiling water
Dissolves the jello powder so the gelatin can distribute evenly.
Oranges
Add fresh citrus acidity and juiciness to the set dessert.
Bananas
Add soft texture and natural sweetness to the dessert.

The step that matters

Dissolve the jello fully in boiling water. Gelatin powder must dissolve completely in hot liquid, or it will form lumps and set unevenly. Stirring until no granules remain ensures a smooth, uniformly firm dessert.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Pineapplefits better
  3. Peachfits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against strawberry, sugar, 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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