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Dessert

Fruit Salad

A fruit salad with grapes, pineapple, marshmallows, and a lemon-mustard dressing, topped with whipped cream and pecans.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Grape and pineapple match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 709 recipes. Both carry 1-hexanal, which smells fruit. The science ↓

Fruit Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dressing

  1. In a saucepan, combine the egg yolks, lemon juice, mustard, and milk.

  2. Cook over low heat until thickened, then set aside to cool.

Prepare the fruit

  1. Cut the grapes in half and remove the seeds.

  2. In a large bowl, combine the grapes, pineapple, and marshmallows.

  3. Pour the dressing over the fruit mixture and gently mix.

Finish and serve

  1. Fold in the whipped cream and let stand for 3 to 4 hours before serving.

  2. Before serving, add pecans to taste.

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. Grape + pineappletop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together709 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

  2. Lemon + mustardtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,816 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Milk + grapetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,682 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

  4. Milk + pineappletop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together885 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  5. Lemon + pineappletop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Thicken the dressing as they set with gentle heat, giving it a creamy body.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the sweetness of the fruit.
Milk
Dilutes the yolk mixture into a smooth, pourable custard base.
Whipped cream
Adds fat and air, lightening the dressing into a soft, fluffy texture.
Marshmallows
Add sweetness and a soft, chewy texture that softens further as the salad stands.

The step that matters

Cook the dressing over low heat until thickened. Egg yolks thicken through gentle heat, but high heat can scramble them into lumps. Low, steady heat keeps the custard smooth.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, lemon, milk, grape, pineapple, cream, pecans):

  1. Sweet potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, lemon, milk, grape, pineapple, cream, pecans. 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.

More fruit salad recipes

Dressing 41Ambrosia 24Pineapple 21Grape 15Frozen 10Mixed 8 See all 267 →

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