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Fennel with Rosemary, Shallots and Goat Cheese

"This classy and sophisticated dish is great as an appetizer or as a side dish with anything from grilled fish to a juicy steak. For an elegant presentation, spoon the wine sauce over the fennel, and garnish with fennel fronds."

By allrecipes · From Open Recipes · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: White wine and goat cheese share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 26 recipes mention both. Both carry ethyl pentanoate, which smells yeast, fruit. The science ↓

The recipe

8 pieces
Prep15 min
Cook45 min

Ingredients

Contains: milk (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. Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C). Arrange the trimmed baby fennel bulbs cut side up in a baking dish just large enough to hold them in one layer.

  2. Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the minced garlic and minced rosemary and cook for 1 minute until fragrant.

  3. Scatter the quartered shallot pieces among the fennel. Pour the dry white wine into the dish, then spoon the garlic and rosemary butter over the bulbs.

  4. Season the fennel lightly with salt and pepper. Cover the dish tightly with foil.

  5. Bake for 30 minutes, then remove the foil and bake for another 15 minutes, until the fennel is very tender when pierced with a knife and the liquid has reduced slightly.

  6. Sprinkle the crumbled goat cheese over the hot fennel and let it soften for 2 minutes 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. White wine + goat cheesetop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together26 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl pentanoate (yeast, fruit).

  2. Fennel + rosemarytop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together157 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Rosemary + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Butter + white winetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together5,039 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Garlic + rosemarytop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together2,179 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the garlic

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fennel, butter, rosemary, shallot, white wine, pepper, goat cheese):

  1. Thymebetter flavor fit
  2. Tarragonbetter flavor fit
  3. Parsleybetter flavor fit
  4. Garlicthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fennel, butter, rosemary, shallot, white wine, pepper, goat cheese. 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).