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Frisée and Apple Salad with Herb-Crusted Goat Cheese Medallions

This classic vinaigrette pairs beautifully with the bitterness of the frisée, the sweetness of the apples and the tanginess of the goat cheese. If you can’t find frisée, mesclun mix is a great alternative.

By williamssonoma · From Open Recipes · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Goat cheese and apple share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and 30 recipes mention both. Both carry ethyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 4.

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, wheat, 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. Goat cheese + appletop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together30 recipes

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

  2. Shallot + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together842 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Mustard + vinegartop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Champagne + appletop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together30 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  5. Walnut + canola oiltop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together95 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-ethyl-2,5-dimethylpyrazine (roasted, nutty).

Mustard and vinegar 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 walnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (goat cheese, shallot, mustard, champagne, vinegar, lemon, canola oil):

  1. Sesameabout as good a flavor fit
  2. Beansabout as good a flavor fit
  3. Walnutthe original
  4. Peasabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against goat cheese, shallot, mustard, champagne, vinegar, lemon, canola oil. 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).