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Dessert

Junket with Puree of Banana

A chilled gelatin dessert made with banana puree and sweetened cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Banana and orange are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,118 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Junket with Puree of Banana

Ingredients

Directions

Make the banana base

  1. Slice the bananas and place them in a saucepan with the water.

  2. Cook slowly until tender, then press through a sieve.

  3. Add the orange juice, sugar, and soaked gelatine to the banana puree.

  4. Stir until dissolved and pour into the bottom of glasses.

Chill and serve

  1. Chill the glasses, then fill with plain junket.

  2. Serve ice cold with sweetened 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.

  1. Banana + orangetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,118 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

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

  3. Banana + sugartop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,102 recipes

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

  4. Orange + sugartop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,212 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Banana + creamtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,180 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

Orange and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,212 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Bananas
Provide the main flavour and, once cooked and sieved, the smooth body of the dessert.
Gelatine
Sets the banana puree so it holds its shape when chilled.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to balance the fruit.
Sweetened cream
Adds richness and a cool, creamy contrast to the set dessert.

The step that matters

Dissolving the gelatine. Gelatine must be fully dissolved into the warm banana puree before pouring, or it will set in lumps and leave the texture uneven. Stirring until no grains remain ensures an even, smooth set once chilled.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Strawberryfits better
  3. Pineapplefits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against banana, sugar, 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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