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Tuna and Mandarin Salad

"This salad is wonderful! The combination of mandarin oranges and tuna is delightful! Top with Italian dressing and nuts."

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Why it works: Apple and mandarin orange share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and 29 recipes mention both. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

The recipe

4 servings
Prep15 min
Cook5 min

Ingredients

Contains: fish (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. Drain the mandarin orange segments and the tuna well, then flake the tuna into small pieces with a fork.

  2. Peel, core and dice the Granny Smith apple.

  3. Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat.

  4. Add the flaked tuna and cook for 3 to 4 minutes, stirring gently, until heated through. The tuna is already cooked, so it only needs warming.

  5. Place the mixed baby greens in a large bowl.

  6. Add the warm tuna with its pan oil, the diced apple and the mandarin segments to the greens, then toss gently to combine.

  7. Divide the salad among four plates and serve right away.

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. Apple + mandarin orangetop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together29 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Olive + mandarin orangetop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together77 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  3. Olive + appletop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,335 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (olive, mandarin orange):

  1. Orangebetter flavor fit
  2. Lemonbetter flavor fit
  3. Limebetter flavor fit
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against olive, mandarin orange. 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).