Why it works: Banana and pineapple match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 733 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓
Fruit Salad
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fruit
Pulp and cut the oranges into blocks.
Cut the bananas into squares.
Cut the sliced pineapple into squares.
Sweeten and freeze
Sweeten the fruit mixture to taste.
Stir in the sherry.
Pack the mixture and freeze.
Serve
Serve on lettuce leaves with mayonnaise dressing.
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.
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Banana + pineappletop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together733 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
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Orange + pineappletop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,664 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
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Pineapple + sherrytop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together228 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
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Orange + bananatop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,118 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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Banana + sherrytop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together117 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Oranges
- Provide juice, sweetness and acidity that give the salad its base flavour.
- Bananas
- Add body and natural sweetness, becoming softer and creamier as the fruit sits.
- Sliced pineapple
- Adds juiciness and a tart flavour that brightens the sweeter fruits.
- Sherry
- Adds aroma and depth, and its alcohol lowers the freezing point so the salad stays softer.
- Sweetener
- Adds sweetness that balances the tartness of the citrus and pineapple.
The step that matters
Pack the mixture and freeze. Sugar and alcohol both lower the freezing point, so the salad freezes slushy rather than rock-hard. Packing the fruit tightly limits air contact, which helps keep it from drying out and discolouring.
Swap the lettuce
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (orange, banana, pineapple, sherry):
- Capsicumfits better
- Sweet potatofits about as well
- Carrotfits about as well
- Lettucethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against orange, banana, pineapple, sherry. 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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