Name: Salpicon of Fruits
Ingredients: 1 cup orange pulp; 1 cup bananas, cut into ½-inch slices; 1 cup grapes, halved and seeds removed; ¼ cup sugar; 2 tablespoons sherry

Why it works: Banana and grape work together. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 496 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Salpicon of Fruits

Ingredients

Directions

Make the salad

In a bowl, mix together the orange pulp, banana slices, and halved grapes gently.
Add the sugar and sherry, and mix until combined.

Serve

Serve in glasses or in half orange skins.

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 + grapetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together496 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Orange + grapetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,771 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Orange + bananatop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,118 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Grape + sherrytop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together229 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Banana + sherrytop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together117 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Orange pulp: Adds juicy fruit body and bright citrus flavour to the salad.
Bananas: Contribute soft texture and natural sweetness to the fruit mixture.
Grapes: Add juiciness and a crisp bite that contrasts with the softer fruit.
Sugar: Sweetens the fruit and helps draw out some of its juice.
Sherry: Adds a fragrant, slightly tart note that complements the fruit.