Name: Fruit Salad
Ingredients: 4 large oranges; 1 can of pineapple (or fresh pineapple, chopped fine); 6 bananas (sliced); ½ cup hickory nuts; 1 cup sugar; ¾ box Plymouth Rock gelatine

Why it works: Pineapple and banana match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 733 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓

Fruit Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit

Chop the oranges and pineapple finely.
Slice the bananas.
Combine the chopped fruit and hickory nuts in a bowl.

Set and chill

Dissolve the gelatine in water according to package instructions.
Add ½ cup sugar to the dissolved gelatine and mix well.
Pour the gelatine mixture over the fruit and nuts.
Refrigerate the salad for a few hours before serving.

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.

Pineapple + bananatop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together733 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
Orange + pineappletop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,664 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
Orange + bananatop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,118 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Banana + nutstop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together135 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl decanoate (grape, waxy).
Pineapple + nutstop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together162 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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

What each ingredient does

Gelatine: Sets the liquid into a firm, sliceable salad that holds the fruit in place.
Sugar: Sweetens the gelatine mixture and balances the tartness of the fruit.
Oranges: Provide juice and acidity that give the salad its bright flavour.
Bananas: Add soft texture and natural sweetness to the salad.
Hickory nuts: Add crunch and a rich, nutty flavour against the soft fruit.