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Dessert

Banana Salad

A fruit salad of bananas, pineapple, and marshmallows topped with French dressing and whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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 ↓

Banana Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the bananas

  1. Wash and dry the bananas.

  2. Cut a lengthwise slice a third down from the top of each banana.

  3. Scoop out the inside of the banana and chop it.

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, mix equal parts of the chopped banana, pineapple, and marshmallows.

  2. Fill the hollowed bananas with the mixture.

Finish and chill

  1. Drizzle a little French dressing over the filled bananas.

  2. Top with whipped cream.

  3. Chill in the refrigerator before serving.

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 + pineappletop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together733 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

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

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

  3. Pineapple + creamtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,574 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Bananas
Form the hollow shell and supply the soft, sweet fruit base for the salad.
Pineapple
Adds juicy acidity and a bright contrast to the sweet banana and marshmallow.
Marshmallows
Melt slightly when chilled and add sweetness and a soft, chewy texture.
Whipped cream
Adds a light, creamy topping that cools and softens each bite.

Swap the pineapple

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Strawberryfits better
  3. Coconutfits about as well
  4. Pineapplethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against banana, 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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