Name: Banana and Nut Salad
Ingredients: 6 bananas; 1 cup boiled salad dressing; 1 pint peanuts, ground very fine; 1 cup whipped cream; Lettuce leaves for serving

Why it works: Peanut and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 170 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Banana and Nut Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the bananas

Cut bananas in half crosswise, then slice the banana pieces in half lengthwise.
Roll banana pieces in the finely ground peanuts.

Dress and serve

Mix the salad dressing with the whipped cream and pour over the bananas.
Serve on lettuce leaves.

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.

Peanut + lettucetop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together170 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Banana + peanuttop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together308 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Banana + lettucetop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together198 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Peanut + creamtop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together490 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Banana + creamtop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,180 recipes

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