Name: Wilted Escarole with Country Ham and Chiles
Yield: Makes 8 to 10 servings
Ingredients: 1 lemon; 1/4 cup olive oil; 2 garlic cloves, very thinly sliced; 2 ounces country ham or prosciutto, cut into matchstick-size pieces (about 1/2 cup); 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes; 2 heads of escarole (about 2 pounds), leaves torn into medium pieces (16 packed cups); Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper; 2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) unsalted butter

Why it works: Olive and garlic are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 25,665 recipes. Both carry linalool, which smells floral, citrus. The science ↓

Wilted Escarole with Country Ham and Chiles

Makes 8 to 10 servings

Ingredients

1 lemon
1/4 cup olive oil
2 garlic cloves, very thinly sliced
2 ounces country ham or prosciutto, cut into matchstick-size pieces (about 1/2 cup)
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
2 heads of escarole (about 2 pounds), leaves torn into medium pieces (16 packed cups)
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) unsalted butter

Directions

Step-by-step directions aren't available for this recipe. See the full recipe at the source →

By epicurious. Recipe from Open Recipes.

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.

Olive + garlictop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,665 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together27,047 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17,451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Lemon + olivetop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,922 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Garlic + peppertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,090 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 clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lemon, olive, garlic, ham, pepper, butter):

Parsleybetter flavor fit
Thymebetter flavor fit
Rosemarybetter flavor fit
Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, olive, garlic, ham, pepper, 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).

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