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Dessert

Chartreuse of Bananas

A chilled banana and cream gelatin dessert with lemon and pistachios.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pistachio and nuts match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 425 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓

Chartreuse of Bananas

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Combine gelatine, sugar, and cold water in a pan.

  2. Stir until dissolved.

  3. Add lemon juice and the pulp of 4 bananas passed through a sieve.

Combine and set

  1. Whisk the cream until stiff.

  2. Stir in the gelatine mixture.

  3. When it begins to set, turn into a plain mold lined with slices of banana and chopped pistachio nuts.

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. Pistachio + nutstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together425 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  2. Lemon + pistachiotop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together431 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  3. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Banana + pistachiotop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together39 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Cream + pistachiotop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together634 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

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

What each ingredient does

Gelatine
Sets the banana and cream mixture into a firm, sliceable dessert.
Bananas
Provide the main flavour and a smooth, pulpy body to the dessert.
Cream
Adds richness and a light, airy texture when whisked until stiff.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the sweetness of the banana.
Sugar
Sweetens the dessert and balances the lemon's acidity.

The step that matters

Turn into the mold when it begins to set. If the gelatine has set too firmly, the mixture will not blend evenly with the cream and will leave lumps or a grainy texture. Pouring while it is still slightly fluid lets it settle smoothly into the mold and hold its shape when unmolded.

Swap the banana

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, lemon, sugar, pistachio, nuts):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Bananathe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, lemon, sugar, pistachio, nuts. 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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