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Fig Salad with Cabrales Cheese and Marcona Almonds

By williamssonoma · From Open Recipes · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Blue cheese and almond work together. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and 24 recipes mention both. Both carry 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine, which smells cocoa, roasted. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: milk, tree nuts (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

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

By williamssonoma. 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. Blue cheese + almondtop 14% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together24 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

  2. Blue cheese + cheesetop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together61 recipes

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

  3. Butter + cheesetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together7,955 recipes

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

  4. Almond + figtop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together518 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  5. Vinegar + mustardtop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Vinegar and mustard share little aroma chemistry, yet 14,067 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

Flavor stand-ins for the mustard

The recipe marks mustard as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, blue cheese, cheese, almond, champagne, vinegar, olive):

  1. Tomatoabout as good a flavor fit
  2. Capsicumabout as good a flavor fit
  3. Potatoabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, blue cheese, cheese, almond, champagne, vinegar, olive. 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).