Name: Nut Salad Sundae
Ingredients: 1 pound mixed nuts, chopped; 10 ounces crushed strawberries; 10 ounces crushed pineapple sauce; plain ice cream

Why it works: Sauce and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,787 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Nut Salad Sundae

Ingredients

1 pound mixed nuts, chopped
10 ounces crushed strawberries
10 ounces crushed pineapple sauce
plain ice cream

Directions

Chop the mixed nuts.
In a bowl, combine the chopped nuts, crushed strawberries, and crushed pineapple sauce.
Serve the mixture over plain ice 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.

Sauce + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,787 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Mixed nuts + pineappletop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Mixed nuts + creamtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together40 recipes

Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).
Mixed nuts + saucetop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Pineapple + creamtop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,574 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Mixed nuts: Adds crunch and texture, and fat that gives a rich mouthfeel against the cold ice cream.
Crushed strawberries: Add fruity sweetness and moisture that soaks slightly into the topping.
Crushed pineapple sauce: Adds sweetness and a bright, tangy flavour that balances the richness of the ice cream.
Plain ice cream: Forms the cold, creamy base that the nut and fruit topping sits on.