Name: Fruited Gelatine
Ingredients: 2 bananas, sliced; 2 oranges, cut into small pieces; ¼ cup nut meats, chopped; ¼ cup raisins; 1 package tinted gelatine; whipped cream for serving

Why it works: Banana and orange are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,118 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Fruited Gelatine

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Slice the bananas and cut the oranges into small pieces.
Chop the nut meats and measure out the raisins.

Set the gelatin

Combine the fruit and nuts in a bowl with the tinted gelatine.
Mold the mixture and refrigerate until set.

Serve

Serve with whipped cream.

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 + orangetop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,118 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Orange + raisintop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,684 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Banana + raisintop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together38 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
Banana + creamtop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,180 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Meat + raisintop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together484 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Tinted gelatine: Sets the fruit and nut mixture into a firm, sliceable shape as it chills.
Bananas: Add soft texture and natural sweetness to the mold.
Oranges: Add juiciness and a bright, slightly acidic flavor.
Nut meats: Add crunch that contrasts with the soft gelatin.
Raisins: Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness.