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Dessert

French Banana Salad

A chilled dessert salad of bananas, crushed ice, wine, water, sugar, whipped cream, and preserved violets.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream 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 ↓

French Banana Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Assemble the salad

  1. In a salad glass, layer crushed ice and sprinkle with sugar.

  2. Add a layer of banana pieces.

  3. Repeat layers of ice, sugar, and bananas until the glass is full.

  4. Pour the white wine and tepid water over the fruit.

  5. Mix the salad gently.

Finish and serve

  1. Top with whipped cream and preserved violets.

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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  2. Banana + white winetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together71 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  3. Banana + almondtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together377 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  4. White wine + creamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,760 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  5. Almond + creamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,130 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Bananas
Provide the main fruit flavour and soft texture once layered and softened in the liquid.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma that brighten the sweetness of the sugar and fruit.
Whipped cream
Adds richness and a soft, creamy contrast to the cold fruit.

Swap the almond

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, banana, white wine, cream):

  1. Chestnutfits about as well
  2. Almondthe original
  3. Hazelnutfits about as well
  4. Pistachiofits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, banana, white wine, 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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