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Dessert

Fruit Salad

A chilled fruit salad of cherries, pineapple, oranges, bell pepper, and boiled dressing served on lettuce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pineapple and orange are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,664 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓

Fruit Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit

  1. Seed the cherries and place a blanched almond in each one.

  2. Cut the pineapple and oranges into small blocks.

Dress and chill

  1. Mix the cherries, pineapple, and oranges with the boiled dressing.

  2. Place the mixture in a freezer or keep very cold on ice.

Serve

  1. When ready to serve, place on a nest of lettuce and garnish with thin rings of green pepper.

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 + orangetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,664 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  2. Pepper + lettucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  4. Orange + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,402 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  5. Orange + lettucetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together373 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

What each ingredient does

Boiled dressing
Coats the fruit and adds moisture and a tangy, sweet richness to the salad.
Oranges
Provide juicy, bright citrus flavour and soft texture in every bite.
Pineapple
Adds juicy sweetness and acidity that balances the richer dressing.
Cherries
Add sweetness and a firm, juicy texture to the mixture.

The step that matters

Keep the mixture very cold. Cold slows enzyme activity and softening in fruit, so keeping the mixture chilled until serving helps it stay firm and fresh-tasting rather than limp or watery.

Swap the lettuce

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Tomatofits about as well
  4. Lettucethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pineapple, orange, pepper. 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.

More fruit salad recipes

Dressing 41Ambrosia 24Pineapple 21Grape 15Frozen 10Mixed 8 See all 267 →

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