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Roasted Pears with Brie, Walnuts and Pomegranate

Roasted pears stuffed with brie, walnuts and pomegranate. A great appetizer for holiday dinner parties!

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Why it works: Brie and walnut work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and 19 recipes mention both. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 8
Prep10 min
Cook30 min

Ingredients

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

Directions

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

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C) and line a baking dish with parchment or lightly grease it.

  2. Cut each peeled pear in half lengthwise and scoop out the core with a small spoon. Place the pear halves cut side up in the dish.

  3. Brush or sprinkle the cut surfaces with the lemon juice and then the brown sugar.

  4. Roast the pears for about 25 minutes, until they are tender when pierced with a knife and lightly browned at the edges.

  5. Scatter the brie over the warm pears so it softens slightly, then top with the chopped walnuts and dried pomegranate arils.

  6. Return the pears to the oven for 3 to 5 minutes, until the cheese is melted, then serve warm.

By tastykitchen. 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. Brie + walnuttop 9% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together19 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  2. Walnut + pomegranatetop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together71 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  3. Brie + cheesetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together161 recipes

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

  4. Lemon + pomegranatetop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together225 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  5. Pear + cheesetop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together92 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl pentanoate (yeast, fruit).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pear, brie, cheese, walnut, pomegranate, sugar):

  1. Figbetter flavor fit
  2. Applebetter flavor fit
  3. Grapebetter flavor fit
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pear, brie, cheese, walnut, pomegranate, sugar. 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).