Name: Banana Charlotte
Ingredients: 1 pint banana pulp; 1 pint stiffly whipped cream; 1½ oz. gelatine; Sugar to taste; Savoy biscuits or strips of broad

Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Banana Charlotte

Ingredients

Directions

Pass the banana through a fine sieve to obtain the pulp.
Soak the gelatine in cold water, then stir it over low heat until dissolved.
Prepare the mold as directed in the recipe for Apple Charlotte.
Gently mix the banana pulp and whipped cream together, sweeten to taste, and add the dissolved gelatine.
Pour the mixture into the prepared mold.

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.

Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Banana + biscuittop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together51 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Cream + biscuittop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,235 recipes

Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).
Sugar + biscuittop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,874 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Banana + sugartop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,102 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).