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Poppy Seed Salad

"Mandarin oranges add the color and the dressing adds the zing to this mixture of greens. You can use spinach or iceberg lettuce in place of romaine, or use a combination of any of them."

By allrecipes · From Open Recipes · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Mandarin orange and apple cider vinegar work together. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and 8 recipes mention both. Both carry isoamyl acetate, which smells banana, pear. The science ↓

The recipe

8 servings
Prep15 min

Ingredients

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

  • Salad
  • Dressing

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Toast the slivered almonds in a dry skillet over medium heat, stirring often, until golden, about 4 minutes. Let cool.

  2. Whisk the white sugar, apple cider vinegar, salt and dry mustard together in a bowl until the sugar dissolves.

  3. Slowly whisk in the vegetable oil, then stir in the poppy seeds to make the dressing.

  4. Place the torn romaine in a large salad bowl. Add the drained mandarin oranges and chopped green onions and toss gently.

  5. Just before serving, add the toasted almonds, pour on the dressing and toss until evenly coated. 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. Mandarin orange + apple cider vinegartop 13% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together8 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  2. Lettuce + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,356 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Almond + poppy seedtop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together91 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-methylbutanol (malty, whiskey).

  4. Onion + mustardtop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together9,243 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Lettuce + almondtop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together210 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the mandarin orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lettuce, onion, almond, sugar, apple cider vinegar, mustard, poppy seed):

  1. Avocadobetter flavor fit
  2. Grapeabout as good a flavor fit
  3. Cherryabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Mandarin orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lettuce, onion, almond, sugar, apple cider vinegar, mustard, poppy seed. 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).