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Dip for the Stars

"A delectable layered dip for any special occasion made with feta and cream cheese, pesto, pine nuts and sun-dried tomatoes. Vodka or gin may be substituted for the vermouth. Looks beautiful on the table, tastes heavenly on your tongue!"

By allrecipes · From Open Recipes · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Vermouth and sauce share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 13 recipes mention both. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

The recipe

30 (2 tablespoon) servings
Prep20 min

Ingredients

Contains: milk, tree nuts (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. Toast the pine nuts in a dry skillet over medium heat, shaking often, for 3 to 4 minutes until golden. Let them cool.

  2. If the sun-dried tomatoes are dry, cover them with boiling water for 5 minutes, then drain and pat dry. Chop finely if needed.

  3. Beat the softened butter and cream cheese in a bowl until smooth and creamy.

  4. Add the crumbled feta, minced garlic, minced shallot, dry vermouth, and ground white pepper to taste. Beat until mostly smooth.

  5. Fold the sun-dried tomatoes and most of the toasted pine nuts into the dip, reserving a small amount of each for topping.

  6. Spread the dip into a serving dish. Spoon the pesto over the top and swirl it lightly through the surface.

  7. Sprinkle with the reserved pine nuts and sun-dried tomatoes. Chill for at least 30 minutes so the dip firms up before serving.

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. Vermouth + saucetop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together13 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Feta cheese + cream cheesetop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together64 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  3. Butter + cream cheesetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,746 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Garlic + shallottop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,949 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Butter + feta cheesetop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together237 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, feta cheese, cream cheese, garlic, shallot, vermouth, pine):

  1. Thymebetter flavor fit
  2. Parsleybetter flavor fit
  3. Dillbetter flavor fit
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, feta cheese, cream cheese, garlic, shallot, vermouth, pine. 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).