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Glazed Pork Tenderloin with Pear and Thyme

Combining juicy pork tenderloin with fresh pear slices and red onion, this simple dish is perfect for an autumn evening. Honey and balsamic vinegar form an appealing glaze on the meat.

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Why it works: Pork and thyme are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and 4,105 recipes mention both. Both carry myrcene, which smells balsamic, herbaceous. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 4.

Ingredients

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. Pork + thymetop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together4,105 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  2. Pear + honeytop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together169 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  3. Pepper + thymetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Olive + thymetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together4,641 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (apple, fatty).

  5. Honey + vinegartop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together1,583 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, pepper, olive, pear, honey, vinegar, thyme):

  1. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  2. Tomatobetter flavor fit
  3. Potatobetter flavor fit
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, pepper, olive, pear, honey, vinegar, thyme. 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).