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Salad

Malaga Grape Salad

A salad of grapes, pecans, pineapple, and marshmallows tossed with French dressing and served on lettuce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Grape and pineapple match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 709 recipes. Both carry 1-hexanal, which smells fruit. The science ↓

Malaga Grape Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel and seed the grapes.

  2. Cut marshmallows into triangular pieces.

  3. Chop the pineapple.

Mix and serve

  1. Chill and mix the grapes, marshmallows, and pineapple.

  2. Serve on crisp lettuce leaves with French dressing.

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. Grape + pineappletop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together709 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

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

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  3. Pecans + lettucetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together145 recipes

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

  4. Grape + lettucetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together349 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  5. Pecans + pineappletop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together294 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Grapes
Provide the main fresh bulk and juicy sweetness of the salad.
Marshmallows
Add a soft, chewy, sweet texture that contrasts with the crisp fruit.
Pineapple
Adds tangy, juicy sweetness that brightens the mix.
Pecans
Contribute crunch and a toasty, nutty flavour against the soft fruit.

Swap the pecans

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

  1. Walnutfits better
  2. Almondfits better
  3. Chestnutfits better
  4. Pecansthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against grape, pineapple, lettuce. 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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