Name: Bananas with Bacon
Ingredients: 6 bananas (not overripe); coarse sea salt; black pepper; 6 strips of thinly sliced bacon; butter for greasing

Why it works: Banana and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,536 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Bananas with Bacon

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Split the bananas in half lengthwise.
Sprinkle the bananas with coarse sea salt and black pepper.
Place a strip of bacon on each banana half.

Bake

Carefully place the bananas in a buttered baking bag, fold, and fasten it.
Bake for 10 to 12 minutes.

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.

Banana + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,536 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
Banana + peppertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together483 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Bananas: Soften and turn sweet and tender as they cook, becoming moist inside.
Bacon: Renders fat and browns in the oven, adding savory flavor and crispness to the banana.