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Cranberry-Pear-Honey Relish

This is a great condiment to have on hand. It works nicely with chicken and fish dishes.

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Why it works: Berry and honey work together. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 15 recipes mention both. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 6
Prep8 min

Ingredients

Directions

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

  1. Peel, core and dice the Bartlett pears into small pieces.

  2. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine the apple juice, sugar and pure honey, stirring until the sugar dissolves.

  3. Add the diced pears to the saucepan and simmer over medium-low heat for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the pears are soft.

  4. Stir in the whole berry cranberry sauce, cinnamon and lemon juice, breaking up the sauce with a spoon.

  5. Simmer over low heat for about 5 minutes, stirring often, until the relish is thickened and evenly combined.

  6. Remove from the heat and let cool to room temperature, then transfer to a jar or container.

  7. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour before serving so the flavors blend and the relish thickens further.

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. Berry + honeytop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together15 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Cranberry + appletop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together169 recipes

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

  3. Berry + cranberrytop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together68 recipes

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

  4. Cranberry + cinnamontop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together116 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

  5. Apple + cinnamontop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together5,586 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

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 (berry, cranberry, sauce, apple, sugar, honey, cinnamon):

  1. Pearbetter flavor fit
  2. Vanillabetter flavor fit
  3. Orangebetter flavor fit
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against berry, cranberry, sauce, apple, sugar, honey, cinnamon. 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).