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Citrus Jell-O® Salad

"This is my favorite gelatin salad recipe! Quick and easy."

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Why it works: Grapefruit and mandarin orange share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and 5 recipes mention both. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

The recipe

8 servings
Prep15 min

Ingredients

Contains: egg (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Place the orange Jell-O mix in a large heatproof bowl. Pour in the 2 cups boiling water and stir for 2 minutes until the gelatin fully dissolves.

  2. Stir in the cold water and orange juice until evenly combined.

  3. Refrigerate for about 45 minutes, until the gelatin thickens to a loose, syrupy consistency.

  4. Meanwhile, drain the red grapefruit and mandarin oranges well, pressing out excess liquid.

  5. Stir the drained grapefruit and mandarin oranges into the partly set gelatin.

  6. In a separate bowl, stir the mayonnaise until smooth, then fold in the thawed whipped topping until no white streaks remain.

  7. Gently fold the whipped mixture into the gelatin mixture until evenly combined.

  8. Pour into a serving dish or mold and refrigerate at least 4 hours, until firm. Spoon into portions to serve.

By allrecipes. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Grapefruit + mandarin orangetop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together5 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Orange + mandarin orangetop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together87 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Orange + grapefruittop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together232 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the grapefruit

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (orange, mandarin orange):

  1. Lemonbetter flavor fit
  2. Grapefruitthe original
  3. Limeabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against orange, mandarin orange. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).