Why it works: Honey and goat cheese share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and 98 recipes mention both. Both carry methyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells apple, fatty. The science ↓
The recipe
Serves 4Ingredients
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.
Peel the blood oranges, then chop them into rounds and set aside.
In a bowl, whisk the pomegranate juice, lemon juice, Dijon mustard, honey and olive oil until smooth and well combined.
Spread the washed arugula over four serving plates.
Arrange the orange rounds over the arugula.
Scatter the crumbled honey goat cheese, toasted chopped walnuts and pomegranate arils over the salad.
Drizzle the dressing over the salad just before serving.
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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Honey + goat cheesetop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together98 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (apple, fatty).
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Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together10,632 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Walnut + pomegranatetop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together71 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
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Orange + pomegranatetop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together116 recipes
Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).
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Pomegranate + lemontop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together225 recipes
Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Flavor stand-ins for the mustard
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (arugula, orange, honey, goat cheese, walnut, pomegranate, lemon):
- Capsicumbetter flavor fit
- Tomatobetter flavor fit
- Lettucebetter flavor fit
- Mustardthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against arugula, orange, honey, goat cheese, walnut, pomegranate, lemon. 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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