Why it works: Mandarin orange and walnut share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and 35 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓
The recipe
Serves 6Ingredients
Contains: wheat, 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.
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Lightly dust a work surface and rolling pin with flour. Roll the thawed pie crust into a round about 11 inches (28 cm) wide.
Drain the mandarin oranges well and pat them dry.
Transfer the crust to the baking sheet. Spread the jellied cranberry sauce over the center, leaving a 2-inch (5 cm) border bare.
Scatter the drained mandarin oranges and chopped walnuts over the cranberry sauce.
Fold the bare border of crust up and over the filling, pleating it loosely as you go and leaving the center open.
Bake for 20 to 22 minutes, until the crust is golden brown and the filling is bubbling.
Let the galette cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before slicing.
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.
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Mandarin orange + walnuttop 6% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together35 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Cranberry + walnuttop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together51 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Cranberry + mandarin orangetop 6% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together7 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Flour + walnuttop 9% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together5,760 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Cranberry + flourtop 11% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together253 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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 (cranberry, sauce, flour, walnut):
- Figbetter flavor fit
- Cherrybetter flavor fit
- Avocadobetter flavor fit
- Mandarin orangethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against cranberry, sauce, flour, walnut. 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).
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