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Watermelon Cocktail

A chilled fruit cocktail made with diced watermelon, pineapple, orange, peach, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Pineapple and peach match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 168 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Watermelon Cocktail

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Cut the watermelon into small dice.

  2. Add the shredded pineapple, diced orange, and diced peach.

  3. Sprinkle with sugar and mix gently.

  4. Serve ice cold.

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. Pineapple + peachtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together168 recipes

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

  2. Pineapple + orangetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,664 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  3. Orange + peachtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together385 recipes

    Shared aroma: pinene (pine, turpentine).

  4. Peach + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,308 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Pineapple + sugartop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,841 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

Watermelon
Provides the main body and sweet, juicy base of the fruit cocktail.
Pineapple
Adds tart, bright flavour and juiciness to the mixed fruit.
Orange
Adds citrus acidity and fresh aroma that balances the sweetness.
Peach
Contributes soft texture and mellow sweetness to the mix.
Sugar
Sweetens the fruit and draws out some juice as it sits.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Apricotfits better
  3. Pearfits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pineapple, peach, sugar. 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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