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Dessert

Fried Bananas

Fried bananas are sliced bananas coated in flour or cracker dust, fried in butter or fat, and served hot.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Fried Bananas

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel the bananas or plantains and cut each into three slices.

  2. Coat the slices well with flour.

  3. Alternatively, roll the slices in beaten egg, then in cracker dust.

  4. Chill on ice for one hour before frying in hot cottolene.

Fry and serve

  1. Sauté in hot butter in a frying pan or fry in deep fat until golden.

  2. Drain on paper towels and serve hot.

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. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Banana + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  3. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Banana + flourtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,725 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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 or plantains
Provide the starchy, sweet fruit that softens within the golden coating.
Flour
Forms a dry coating that helps the slices brown and crisp when fried.
Egg
Binds the cracker dust to the slices as an alternative coating.
Cracker dust
Adds a crisp, browned outer crust over the fruit.
Butter
Conducts heat and adds richness and browning when sautéing.

The step that matters

Chill the coated slices before frying. Chilling firms the coating so it adheres and holds its shape in hot fat, while the fruit inside stays intact rather than falling apart.

Swap the banana

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, egg):

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Lemonfits better
  4. Bananathe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, egg. 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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