Why it works: Banana and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,430 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓
Banana Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Make the base
Dissolve the gelatine in 1 cup of cold water.
Boil 3 pints of sweet milk and remove some to dissolve the gelatine.
Once dissolved, return the gelatine mixture to the remaining milk and boil for 10 minutes.
Let it cool until not stiff, then stir in 6 mashed bananas.
Refrigerate the mixture until ready to serve.
Finish and serve
An hour before serving, sweeten and whip 1 quart of cream with vanilla until stiff.
Layer the banana mixture in a glass dish and top with whipped cream.
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.
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Banana + vanillatop 1% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,430 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
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Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,187 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
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Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together35,032 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Milk + bananatop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,470 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Gelatine
- Sets the milk mixture so it holds its shape when chilled.
- Sweet milk
- Forms the creamy body of the dessert.
- Bananas
- Add banana flavour and soft, smooth texture to the set mixture.
- Rich cream
- Whipped to add lightness and richness to the topping.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the milk mixture and the whipped cream.
The step that matters
Let it cool until not stiff, then stir in the bananas. If the gelatine mixture is still hot, the bananas can discolour and the mixture may not set evenly. Waiting until it has cooled but is still fluid lets the bananas blend in evenly before chilling.
Swap the banana
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, sugar, cream, vanilla):
- Strawberryfits better
- Figfits about as well
- Coconutfits about as well
- Bananathe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, sugar, cream, vanilla. 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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