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Dessert

Scalloped Bananas

A baked banana dish topped with butter, sugar, salt, breadcrumbs, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Scalloped Bananas

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Skin, scrape, and slice the bananas.

  2. Butter a baking dish.

Assemble

  1. Layer half the bananas in the dish.

  2. Sprinkle with half the salt, sugar, and bread crumbs.

  3. Add the remaining bananas.

  4. Top with the rest of the salt, sugar, and bread crumbs.

  5. Dot with butter.

  6. Pour the water over the top.

  7. Cover the dish.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 20 minutes.

  2. Uncover the dish.

  3. Bake for an additional 20 minutes or until nicely browned.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Banana + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  3. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Banana + breadtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together67 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  5. Banana + sugartop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,102 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Bananas
Form the main body of the dish, softening into a tender, sweet filling as they bake.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the top brown as it caramelises in the oven.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and add a light, textured layer that crisps on top.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that helps the top brown and gives flavour.

The step that matters

Cover, then uncover the dish. Baking covered first traps steam so the bananas cook through and soften. Uncovering for the final 20 minutes lets moisture evaporate so the crumb topping can brown.

Swap the banana

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Applefits better
  4. Bananathe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, bread. 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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