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Salad

Alligator Pear Salad

A chilled salad of sliced alligator pears, tomatoes, onion, and a vinaigrette of vinegar, mustard, olive oil, and cheese.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pear and apple match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 649 recipes. Both carry isoamyl acetate, which smells banana, fruity. The science ↓

Alligator Pear Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel and slice the alligator pears and tomatoes lengthwise.

  2. Chop the onion finely and add it to the pears and tomatoes.

Make the dressing

  1. In a bowl, combine the vinegar, mustard, salt, and pepper; stir thoroughly.

  2. Add the olive oil to the vinegar mixture and mix well.

Assemble and serve

  1. Pour the dressing over the pears and tomatoes, then sprinkle grated cheese on top.

  2. Serve cold.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Pear + appletop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together649 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  2. Tomato + olivetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,539 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Mustard + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

  4. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Mustard + olivetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Alligator pears
Provide the creamy, rich body that makes up most of the salad.
Tomatoes
Add moisture and gentle acidity to the salad.
Olive oil
Adds fat and richness, and helps carry flavour through the dressing.
French mustard
Emulsifies the oil and vinegar so the dressing holds together and gains sharpness.
Apple vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the fat.
Grated cheese
Adds salty, savoury flavour on top of the salad.

The step that matters

Add the olive oil to the vinegar mixture and mix well. Oil and vinegar separate unless they are whisked together thoroughly. Mixing well with the mustard, which acts as an emulsifier, keeps the dressing smooth so it coats the pears and tomatoes evenly rather than pooling.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pear, apple, vinegar, tomato, mustard, olive, cheese):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Lettucefits better
  3. Cucumberfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pear, apple, vinegar, tomato, mustard, olive, cheese. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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