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Ham and Pear Panini

"This is a twist on an old classic -- ham and cheese. Adding a fresh cut pear gives the sandwich a nice, light sweetness that you won't forget."

By allrecipes · From Open Recipes · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pear and mozzarella cheese share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and 8 recipes mention both. Both carry ethyl pentanoate, which smells yeast, fruit. The science ↓

The recipe

2 sandwiches
Prep5 min
Cook6 min

Ingredients

Contains: milk, wheat (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. Spread the mustard on one side of each bread slice. Layer the ham, pear slices and shredded mozzarella on half of the slices, then sprinkle the ground black pepper over the filling.

  2. Close each sandwich with a remaining bread slice, mustard side facing in. Spread the light margarine evenly over the outside of both slices of each sandwich.

  3. Heat a skillet or panini press over medium heat. Place the sandwiches in the pan and press down gently with a heavy pan or the press.

  4. Cook about 3 minutes per side until the bread is golden and the cheese has melted. The ham is already cured, so it only needs to be heated through.

  5. Cut each sandwich in half and serve warm.

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. Pear + mozzarella cheesetop 15% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together8 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl pentanoate (yeast, fruit).

  2. Bread + buttertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together27,145 recipes

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

  3. Bread + hamtop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  4. Mozzarella cheese + buttertop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together545 recipes

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

  5. Mustard + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together15,427 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, ham, pear, pepper, mozzarella cheese, butter):

  1. Tomatobetter flavor fit
  2. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  3. Potatobetter flavor fit
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, ham, pear, pepper, mozzarella cheese, butter. 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).