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Salad

Pineapple Salad

A fruit salad of diced pineapple, apples, cherries, dressed with cream or mayonnaise and served on lettuce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Pineapple and apple match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 530 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓

Pineapple Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit

  1. Cut the ripe pineapple into dice.

  2. Sweeten the pineapple and lay it on a napkin to drain.

  3. Set the pineapple on ice.

Assemble and serve

  1. Just before serving, add the diced apples and cherries.

  2. Pour over cream salad dressing or mayonnaise and serve on lettuce.

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. Pineapple + appletop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together530 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  3. Apple + lettucetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together515 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  4. Pineapple + creamtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,574 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Cream + lettucetop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,121 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Pineapple
Provides the main fruit body and juice, with sweetness that is balanced by the dressing.
Apples
Add firm, crisp pieces that contrast with the soft pineapple.
Cream salad dressing or mayonnaise
Adds fat and richness, coating the fruit and giving a creamy texture.

Swap the lettuce

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pineapple, apple, cream):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Sweet potatofits about as well
  3. Potatofits about as well
  4. Lettucethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pineapple, apple, cream. 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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