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Apple, Pecan, and Blue Cheese Salad with Dried Cherries

I thought I'd follow up the french fry post with something slightly more redeeming. I made this salad a couple of weeks ago, ...

By thepioneerwoman · From Open Recipes · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Blue cheese and mustard work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and 102 recipes mention both. Both carry linalool, which smells floral, citrus. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 8
Prep15 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. Whisk the Dijon mustard, maple syrup, apple cider vinegar and olive oil in a large bowl until smooth. Season with salt and pepper, then add more maple syrup or vinegar to taste.

  2. Toast the pecan halves in a dry skillet over medium heat for 3 to 4 minutes, stirring often, until fragrant. Let them cool.

  3. Cut the blue cheese into chunks and core and slice the apples very thin.

  4. Add the spring mix, sliced apples, dried cherries and blue cheese to the dressing bowl and toss gently to coat.

  5. Divide the salad among plates, scatter the toasted pecans over the top and serve right away.

By thepioneerwoman. 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. Blue cheese + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together102 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  2. Apple + blue cheesetop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together40 recipes

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

  3. Apple + maple syruptop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together272 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Blue cheese + olivetop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together314 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (apple, fatty).

  5. Apple cider vinegar + olivetop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together408 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

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 (apple, blue cheese, maple syrup, apple cider vinegar, olive, pepper):

  1. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  2. Tomatobetter flavor fit
  3. Potatoabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, blue cheese, maple syrup, apple cider vinegar, olive, pepper. 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).