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Pineapple Salad No. 1

A fresh salad of pineapple, lettuce, jello, celery, mayonnaise, whipped cream, and nuts.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Lettuce and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,033 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

Pineapple Salad No. 1

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Place the pineapple slice on a lettuce leaf.

  2. Put the cube of red jello in the center of the pineapple.

  3. Sprinkle the chopped celery over the jello.

  4. Mix the mayonnaise with the whipped cream.

  5. Top the salad with the dressing and sprinkle with chopped nuts.

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. Lettuce + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,033 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  2. Pineapple + lettucetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together271 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  3. Lettuce + nutstop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together174 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  4. Pineapple + nutstop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together162 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  5. Pineapple + celerytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together230 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

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

What each ingredient does

Pineapple
Adds juicy sweetness and a bright, slightly acidic flavor.
Red jello
Provides sweetness and bright red color, and holds its shape as a firm cube.
Celery
Adds a crisp, crunchy texture and fresh, mild flavor.
Mayonnaise
Adds fat and a tangy richness that gives the dressing body.
Whipped cream
Adds lightness and a smooth, airy texture to the dressing.
Nuts
Adds crunch and a toasty, nutty flavor on top.

The step that matters

Mix the mayonnaise with the whipped cream. Whipped cream holds air in its fat structure. Stirring too hard deflates it, making the dressing dense and heavy instead of light. Fold gently so the dressing stays airy and smooth.

Swap the pineapple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lettuce, celery, cream, nuts):

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Lemonfits better
  4. Pineapplethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lettuce, celery, cream, nuts. 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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