Name: Apples and Walnuts with Stilton Cheese
Yield: Serves 6.
Ingredients: 6 oz. Stilton cheese; 1 Tbs. extra-virgin olive oil; 1 Tbs. red wine vinegar; 2 Tbs. heavy cream; 1 tsp. freshly ground pepper; 6 sweet eating apples, such as Braeburn, Gala or Red Delicious, unpeeled, cored and cut into 1/2-inch dice; 4 celery stalks, thinly sliced, plus several whole; celery leaves for garnish; 2 Tbs. dried currants or raisins; 1 Tbs. fresh lemon juice; 1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts, toasted

Why it works: Pepper and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

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.

Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Red wine + appletop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together148 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).
Olive + celerytop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,667 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Red wine + vinegartop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together575 recipes

Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
Cheese + appletop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together294 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

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cheese, olive, red wine, vinegar, cream, pepper, celery):

Plumfits better
Grapefits about as well
Lemonfits about as well
Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cheese, olive, red wine, vinegar, cream, pepper, celery. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Cheese	1 oz (28g) cheddar	113
Apple	1 medium (182g)	95
Grape	1/2 cup (76g)	62
Cream	1 tbsp (15ml) heavy	51
Walnut	1 walnut half (4g)	26
Lemon	juice of 1 lemon (48ml)	12
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Celery Stalks	1 stalk (40g)	6
Celery	1 stalk (40g)	6
Vinegar	1 tbsp (15ml) distilled	3

Apples and Walnuts with Stilton Cheese