Name: Maryland Canape
Ingredients: 1 slice of pineapple; 1 slice of peeled and chilled tomato; thin slices of banana; 1 large cherry or strawberry, quartered; heart lettuce leaves; French Dressing No. 2

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 ↓

Maryland Canape

Ingredients

1 slice of pineapple
1 slice of peeled and chilled tomato
thin slices of banana
1 large cherry or strawberry, quartered
heart lettuce leaves
French Dressing No. 2

Directions

Place a slice of pineapple on a slice of peeled and chilled tomato.
Arrange thin slices of banana overlapping on top of the pineapple.
Fill the center with a large cherry or strawberry cut into quarters.
Surround the canape with heart lettuce leaves.
Serve with French Dressing No. 2.

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).
Pineapple + cherrytop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together537 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Tomato + cherrytop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,113 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Banana + cherrytop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together187 recipes

Shared aroma: n-butyl acetate (pear, banana).
Cherry + lettucetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together242 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pineapple, banana, cherry, lettuce):

Beetrootfits better
Capsicumfits better
Cucumberfits better
Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pineapple, banana, cherry, lettuce. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.